Republican state treasurers say they’ll weigh banks’ fossil fuel stance in contracting decisions

Fifteen Republican state treasurers say they will consider whether banks are willing to lend to fossil fuel companies when making contracting decisions, an attempt to counter reported attempts by the Biden administration to push banks to be more climate-friendly. 

In a letter to special climate envoy John Kerry on Tuesday, the group wrote that they will “put banks and financial institutions on notice” and urged them not to refuse services to fossil fuel companies. 

“As the chief financial officers of our respective states, we trust banks and financial institutions with billions of our taxpayers’ dollars,” they wrote. “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 was spearheaded by West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore and first reported by Axios. It cites reporting from Politico that Kerry is privately pushing banks to announce climate commitments including the creation of a net-zero banking alliance.

A State Department spokesperson told The Hill that Kerry has not pressured financial institutions into making commitments, but said that many of them have reached out to the official to discuss climate-related risks and opportunities.

Environmental advocates have also pushed banks not to finance activities that harm the climate, and several major banks have put restrictions on which types of projects they will loan to.

Republicans argue this is unfair and have sought to paint such actions as “discrimination.”