Oklahoma Republican lawmakers said they will continue offering tweaks to the state’s anti-oil and gas boycott law for financial firms and banks, even though the law itself is on hold pending an appeal at the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Rep. Mark Lepak, R-Claremore, held an interim study on Wednesday looking into the background of state laws targeting climate change goals and other environmental, social and governance initiatives put in place by investment firms and banks. Lepak said he remained committed to making the Oklahoma Energy Discrimination Elimination Act better. “ESG goals weaken industries important to Oklahoma’s economy, which means fewer jobs, which reduces our collective wealth and in turn reduces tax collections and everything tax dollars support,” Lepak said. “Beyond the basic services we all expect, it also affects things like our pensions that are totally supported by tax dollars…. Does it make sense to invest in things that hurt our economy?” Oklahoma lawmakers passed HB 2034 in 2022, which directed the state treasurer to establish a list of banks and financial institutions perceived to be boycotting the oil and gas industry with their carbon-emissions reduction goals. Treasurer Todd Russ has issued three versions of the list, the latest issued in May. Among the companies on the list are Bank of America, State Street Corp., BlackRock Inc. and Barclays PLC. But enforcement of the law is on hold after a retiree, Don Keenan, challenged its constitutionality and what he called political interference in the state’s pension plans. Oklahoma County District Judge Sheila Stinson issued a permanent injunction in September. The witnesses at Wednesday’s interim hearing uniformly thought Oklahoma’s law was working as intended despite the legal challenges and an exemption taken by one of the state’s largest pension systems. Russ also exercised an exemption because the state’s purchase cards are managed by Bank of America, which he put on the restricted company list. Three of the witnesses had ties to the energy industry or conservative think tanks partly funded by the oil and gas sector. Some of their presentation slides cross-referenced similar reports issued by conservative think tanks in other states. Russ has attended several conferences hosted by the State Financial Officers Foundation, which has also provided him with talking points about anti-ESG laws and hosted speakers from other similarly minded groups. Jason Isaac, a former Texas House member now with the Austin-based American Energy Institute, bashed recent research reports in Texas and Oklahoma critical of those state’s anti-ESG laws. He said U.S. environmental regulations and policies promoted “eco-anxiety” and “climate alarmism.” “When we increase regulations in the United States, all we do is shift production to other countries,” said Isaac, who described himself as living a high-carbon lifestyle. “We don’t reduce demand, we just ship production. That’s why this ESG agenda is really the China ESG agenda. China is adding a coal-fired power plant every single week.” Isaac said taxpayers were subsidizing electric vehicles and states pushing a so-called all-of-the-above energy strategy were contributing to lazy messaging about energy demand and production.  Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt and former Gov. Mary Fallin, both Republicans, touted the state’s oil and gas sector and renewable energy contributions to the state’s economy. In 2020, the state tried unsuccessfully to get Tesla to make its trucks near Tulsa and has offered incentives to troubled electric car manufacturer Canoo Inc. Paul Tice, a former Wall Street bond trader who is now a senior fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics, said ESG represented a variety of morally subjective policies that was hard to square with the goal of most investors. “It’s basically progressive politics and political goals masquerading as finance,” Tice said. “Through pressure from activist groups and moral duress, we have integrated ESG into the financial markets.” Russ said financial institutions on the state’s restricted company list are on notice that Oklahoma is serious about protecting the oil and gas industry. He said the law should be expanded to include giving state pension funds more of a say on a public company’s shareholder proxy voting process. Russ said investment managers are voting for ESG shareholder resolutions without taking into account the views of some of their biggest customers like state pension funds.  “We’re not telling private firms where they can and cannot invest,” Russ said. “We want to stop Oklahoma pension dollars from being hijacked to further non-financial, social causes. We just want to look for the best returns of those investments and the best outcomes for our pensioners.” Russ and another witness, Matthew du Mee, who appeared on behalf of Heritage Action for America, repeatedly faulted investment giant BlackRock for pushing low-carbon goals and other ESG practices. Apart from proxy votes, du Mee said BlackRock’s huge investment profile gives it more access with company executives to press their case. “BlackRock and State Street meet with companies behind closed doors, and they tell those companies what they need to do,” du Mee said. Lepak said the House had two bills in the 2024 session to make changes to the energy discrimination law, but neither made it through the Senate. He has another interim study scheduled for Oct. 31 on the state’s pension systems. Tulsa retiree Don Keenan sued Russ last year over the state’s anti-ESG law. Keenan is a former human resources director of a Sinclair refinery in Tulsa, worked for the state for 11 years and is a beneficiary of the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System. The law is on hold after a district judge issued a permanent injunction. The Oklahoma Supreme Court has an Oct. 30 deadline for main briefs to be filed in an appeal by the attorney general’s office of the permanent injunction. Separately, Russ and his chief of staff, Jordan Harvey, were named in a lawsuit filed last week over open records requests made to this office about the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act. The complaint alleges Harvey failed to turn over emails about the law from a private Gmail account. It said the treasurer’s office has been coordinating with outside groups that want to influence Oklahoma policy. “On information and belief, Defendant Harvey received at her personal email address from certain unnamed ‘friends in DC’ the three documents she forwarded from her personal email address to her state email address, at least one of which she later sent to the governor’s office,” the lawsuit said. The treasurer’s office said it provides thousands of pages of records to all types of requesters. It has not yet answered the complaint filed in Oklahoma County district court. “The Treasurer’s office works diligently with multiple organizations in an effort to provide thousands of documents on a regular basis,” Harvey said in an email on Wednesday. “It is deeply disappointing that an out-of-state company is using Oklahoma’s Open Records Act, a sunshine law designed to ensure transparency for the people of Oklahoma for the benefit of unknown out-of-state entities.” Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @pmonies.  The post Despite Legal Challenges and Exemptions, GOP Lawmakers Remain Committed to Anti-ESG Law appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.