Texas, West Virginia, Florida ban investing with financial firms like BlackRock, USB, JP Morgan Chase and others

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In a rather unique 'small government' move Republicans in Texas, WV, and Florida have decided they will start limiting where people in their state are allowed to invest. Texas banned 10 financial companies like BlackRock, BNP Paribas and Credit Sussie from doing business there. West Virginia banned BlackRock and JPM in July. Florida banned pension funds from considering investing in ESG (environmental, social and governance) funds.

Texas has blacklisted BlackRock Inc., BNP Paribas, UBS Group AG and other financial companies for allegedly boycotting the fossil-fuel industry, a move that could lead state pensions and other public entities to sell their shareholdings in those companies.

Oddly enough this is despite the fact that companies like Exxon actually benefit from this:

Republicans pressured Exxon CEO Darren Woods and others who had praised incentives for those new lines of business to oppose the bill, highlighting tension between the Republican Party and the oil industry.

And those companies actively invest in energy projects in those states:

BlackRock said the comptroller’s opinion wasn’t “fact-based,” noting that it has invested over $100 billion in Texas energy companies. UBS said it provided the comptroller with “extensive information” showing it doesn’t boycott energy companies even under a broad interpretation of Texas law.

There is evidence that kicking banks out of their municipal-bond markets will end up hurting taxpayers. Academic studies have shown similar moves have decreased competition in local markets and pushed up borrowing costs. An assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and a Federal Reserve economist recently estimated Texas entities paid several hundred million dollars in additional interest in the eight months after the state initially passed its anti-ESG law last year.

Texas’ Mr. Hegar and West Virginia state Treasurer Riley Moore said they aren’t worried, because other Wall Street firms with less restrictive approaches will step in to replace those they kicked out.

“I’m not the distortion in the marketplace,” Mr. Moore said. “They are.”

They sure picked some interesting fights. BlackRock as $10 trillion in assets under management with something like 99.9% being non-ESG related. Hell - they even offer "US Oil and gas exploration" funds! JPM another 3 trillion and a somewhat notable banking\lending business so if I were to guess they aren't materially affected by this. Residents in those states on the other hand...

For a smaller corner of the involved market BlackRock's iShares are great index fund options and, given their size, Blackrock might be the only reasonable 401k\403b\457 plan provider for many companies in the state - forcing residents to go with shadier and much less lucrative high ER mutual funds. But who cares if the little people are hurt in the war against... libs? (I can't really figure out what else it is. Big Corporations are negatively impacted by this. Oil is negatively impacted by this) Those damn libs always investing in the massive investment companies they want to invest in. And those libs were also benefitting from oil investments by those massive companies in Texas. And that's bad because they are libs so everyone in the state should suffer.