Missouri Treasurer Joins Push Against Biden Effort To Get Banks To Drop Coal

By Jason Hancock, Missouri Independent

May 26, 2021

A group of 15 Republican treasurers, including Missouri’s Scott Fitzpatrick, are threatening to remove their state’s assets from banks that “refuse to lend to or invest in coal, oil and natural gas companies.”

The move comes in response to efforts by the Biden administration to get banks to help reduce U.S. carbon emissions. Specifically, the group of treasurers is focused on calls by President Joe Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, on financial institutions to move away from financing high-polluting fuels such as coal.

In a letter to Kerry, first reported by Axios, the 15 GOP treasurers accused the president of trying to “bully corporations into curtailing legal activities.”

And for those banks who do go along with the plan, the treasurer’s delivered a threat of their own.

“As the chief financial officers of our respective states, we entrust banks and financial institutions with billions of our taxpayers’ dollars,” the letter said. “It is only logical that we will give significant weight to the fact that an institution engaged in tactics that will harm the people whose money they are handling before entering into or extending any contract.”

The letter’s chief signatory, West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore, was more blunt, telling Axios he was prepared to terminate contracts with banks that pull back their fossil fuel industry lending in response to administration pressure.

This story was originally published by Missouri Independent. For more stories from the Missouri Independent, visit Missouri Independent.