Texas on Tuesday said it is divesting $8.5 billion from asset manager behemoth BlackRock over the company’s anti-fossil fuel policies.
Aaron Kinsey, the Republican chairman of the State Board of Education, said that the $53 billion Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF) delivered an official notice to BlackRock “terminating its financial management of approximately $8.5 billion in Texas’ assets.”
Kinsey said it divested from BlackRock in compliance with the state’s 2021 law restricting investments with companies that boycott fossil fuel companies. Texas banned BlackRock and nine other financial firms from working with the Lone Star State.
BlackRock, a pioneer of the Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) movement, disputed that it is boycotting energy-producing companies.
BlackRock said in a statement on Tuesday:
BlackRock is helping millions of Texans invest and save for retirement. On behalf of our clients, we’ve invested more than $300 billion in Texas-based companies, infrastructure and municipalities, including $125 billion invested in the energy sector, including $550 million a joint venture with Occidental.
“Today represents a major step forward for the Texas PSF and our state as a whole,” Kinsey said in a statement. “The PSF will not stand idle as our financial future is attacked by Wall Street. This bold action helps ensure our PSF remains in fact permanent and will continue to support bright futures and opportunities for generations of Texas students.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.