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The
arguments -- shown in documents provided to Reuters under a
public records request -- mark a new bargaining tactic for the
industry in its dealings with Republican state officials
pressuring banks to keep lending to coal, oil or gas companies.
West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore may bar six top financial
institutions from state business. But climate remains a hot
topic for many investors, leaving banks trying to walk a middle
path.
In a July 6 letter to Moore, Morgan Stanley Chief Legal Officer
Eric Grossman said the Wall Street bank does not penalize fossil
fuel companies. Grossman noted the bank was labeled one of the
"Dirty Dozen" top fossil fuel financiers in a recent report
https://www.ran.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/
03/BOCC_2022_vSPREAD-1.pdf by environmental group Rainforest
Action Network.
"In considering this report, we believe that one could not
conclude that Morgan Stanley is engaging in a 'boycott of energy
companies'," Grossman wrote. A firm representative declined to
comment further.
In a July 7 letter to Moore, Goldman Sachs Group Inc Managing
Director Beverly O'Toole noted its inclusion in the same report,
"In support of the extent of the Company's engagement with
energy companies."
The report found Goldman Sachs had provided $119 billion in
fossil fuel financing since 2016, O'Toole wrote. A Goldman
representative declined to comment further.
In similar correspondence to officials in Texas, Morgan Stanley
and other banks previously had not cited environmentalists'
concerns but rather factors like their fiduciary duty or
reputational risks.
A spokesman for Moore said his office would not comment on the
bank statements until his review is complete.
A letter
https://www.wvtreasury.com/
Portals/wvtreasury/Fossil%20Fuel%20Banking%20Letter%20Nov%2022.pdf
to U.S. banks last November sent by Moore urges banks "to award
financing based on an unbiased, non-political basis."
Ben Cushing, campaign manager for the Sierra Club, which helped
produce the Rainforest Action Network report, said pressure from
investors and customers will continue on financial firms to
consider climate issues.
The notion that banks "are 'boycotting’ energy companies is just
the latest flavor of climate denial," Cushing said via e-mail.
(Reporting by Ross Kerber; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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