Texas comes to insurance companies ‘Woke’ next

Don’t worry, helpless insurers: The Texas legislature is here to protect you from the big, bad environmentalists. A Texas senator said during a panel last week at a conference convened by a prominent climate-denier think tank that the state legislature will focus on introducing legislation this year to punish insurers trying to divest from fossil fuels. The bigger goal is ESG, or Environment, Social, and Governance, a strategy companies can use to make ethical investments.

during discussion Last week at the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s annual summit – titled “ESG = Ensure Everyone Suffers” (lol, you guys! A law passed in 2021 prohibits the state of Texas from doing business with financial institutions that have pro-climate policies. This time, Hughes said, the legislature will target insurance companies that have similar policies.

Hughes declared, “If they’re messing with money belonging to Texas pensioners and undermining the very economy of Texas, we’re going to teach them some manners.”

Those of you who follow our coverage of fossil fuel-friendly policies emanating from Texas may recognize the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the source of some of the ugliest pro-fossil fuel rhetoric in the GOP, including the notion that Coal was responsible for ending slavery. It’s easy to laugh at TPPF and the crazy things you push out. For example: Jason Isaaca former Texas politician who now runs the energy arm of the TPPF and ran this very commission, doubled down on the think tank’s rhetoric that fossil fuels lift people out of poverty, calling the Paris Agreement “treasonable” and calling for “human rights tribunals” for people like Bill Gates and the Secretary United Nations General António Guterres for their work on climate.

But the TPPF has proven to be a major force in Republican politics. Its annual summits have been places for Republican power players to test the waters on rhetoric and preview potential policies. The extent of the think tank’s influence was evident last week. During the hearing, Isaacs claimed that the TPPF was responsible for the first draft of the anti-ESG bill passed by the Texas legislature in 2021 (the organization’s annual conference in January 2021. An early discussion emerged On the use of legislation to combat ESG measures.) More than a dozen similar bills passed or proposed in state legislatures across the country, while anti-ESG sentiment is now brewing A formidable pillar in the Republican Partywith TPPF-esque talking points float By potential presidential candidates like Ron DeAntis.

Not to mention, last week’s panel discussion was full of loopholes, bad science, and logical fallacies. (During the hearing, Hughes described a coal plant in his district as “clean” and vowed to “do everything [he] It could stop “any legislation that would provide economic subsidies for wind and solar power.) And it doesn’t matter that the insurance industry currently exists See the effects of climate change in real time They may in fact have a vested interest in preventing more people’s homes from being destroyed by storms Forest fires. It was clear from the discussion that actual financial discussions about the benefits or disadvantages of ESG are not the objectives of these policies and positions; Instead, it is painting fossil fuels as the saviors of the world.

During the panel’s question-and-answer session, a man who identified himself as an oil and gas operator stood up and thanked the group for their work combating ESG policies.

“You’re helping people in Texas, so thank you,” Hughes said.

“It is people like you who are lifting the world out of poverty barrel by barrel,” Isaacs added.