Oil and gas companies boycotted by Texas are put under pressure

Comptroller Glenn Hegar said on March 21 that Texas state agencies may no longer invest funds in companies boycotting oil and gas companies.

According to Hegar, he had contacted 19 major international investment firms as of March 16, including JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, and Blackrock, asking them to clarify their policy on fossil fuel investment. The company has 60 days to clarify its position on fossil fuel companies. Those that do not respond will be presumed to be boycotting them and added to a final list of companies.

Hegar believes that as the "ninth largest economy in the world," Texas's position on fossil fuels "will be able to influence behavior, and companies will continue to invest and realize that energy production in Texas is incredibly important not only to the state economy, but to the national economy as well."

Despite pushing net-zero energy and other environmental, social and governance policies, Hegar said in a March 16 statement, these companies also tell Texas and other energy states that "fossil fuels are where they're headed.".

“It is time for these companies to come clean, stop the big lie and realize they can’t have it both ways,” he stated.

24 March 2022