Texas Comptroller’s Climate Denying Publicity Stunt Will Be Costly for Taxpayers

Austin, TX – Today, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced a list of financial companies whose financing practices supposedly “boycott” energy companies. The list includes companies like BlackRock, who are major funders of fossil fuels.

A number of state entities will now be required to divest from these companies. A similar move preventing the state from doing business with certain banks that had reduced their business with gun manufacturers, passed last year, ended up costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in just its first year of implementation. 

"As always, Texas politicians like Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Comptroller Glenn Hegar are more interested in scoring political points than addressing the needs of everyday working Texans,” said Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter Director Dave Cortez. “The climate crisis is leading to record heat and flooding, our strained grid is leading to skyrocketing electricity bills, and they choose instead to focus on policies that are proven to raise costs for Texas taxpayers. We see through this charade."

“Major financial institutions like the ones on this list are beginning to recognize that investments in fossil fuels bring significant risk in the face of an inevitable clean energy transition, and that addressing the financial risks of the climate crisis is essential to good business,” said Sierra Club Fossil-Free Finance Campaign Manager Ben Cushing. “The fact that the Texas Comptroller has arbitrarily picked a handful of companies that, despite their climate commitments, continue to have massive fossil fuel investments, shows that this is nothing more than a political stunt at Texas taxpayers’ expense.”