Texas joined a group of Republican-led states accusing BlackRock Inc. of putting woke investment criteria above shareholder profits in state pension funds.
In a letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, 19 attorneys general, mainly from conservative states, challenged his company’s reliance on environmental, social, and governance criteria at the expense of investor returns.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in an Aug. 8 news release that ESG climate goals harm Texas’s oil and gas economy and state pension fund performance. The release said that BlackRock’s actions might also violate state and federal law.
​​BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, recently sent a letter to several states, claiming it has joined climate organizations merely for “dialogue” and is focused solely on its fiduciary duty….