AG Paxton Demands BlackRock Account for its Underperforming

Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General 

AUSTIN –  (News Release) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined 18 other states in a letter to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink challenging his company’s reliance on Environmental, Social, and Governance investment criteria rather than shareholder profits in managing state pension funds. “ESG” goals, while ostensibly well-intentioned, make little economic sense, and have a direct adverse effect on Texas’s oil and gas economy and state pension fund performance. BlackRock’s actions may also violate state and federal law.  

 “Our states will not idly stand for our pensioners’ retirements to be sacrificed for BlackRock’s climate agenda. The time has come for BlackRock to come clean on whether it actually values our states’ most valuable stakeholders, our current and future retirees, or risk losses even more significant than those caused by BlackRock’s quixotic climate agenda,”  the letter states. 

 BlackRock, which has $10 trillion in assets under management, is a global leader in advancing the ESG agenda.  

 Read the letter here.