What’s the story?

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced last week that his office removed BlackRock from the state’s list of firms barred from managing public investment funds over their treatment of fossil fuel companies.

Hegar said BlackRock’s recent shift away from public ESG support made the firm eligible to do business with the state again. He cited BlackRock’s broader inclusion of oil and gas companies in investment products and its withdrawal from the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative and Climate Action 100+.

Why does it matter?

Texas was the first and largest state to create a list of asset managers—including BlackRock and other major firms—ineligible for public contracts over alleged discrimination against fossil fuel companies. BlackRock’s removal marks a shift in the relationship between the largest Republican-led state and the world’s largest asset manager.

What’s the background?

Texas passed its anti-boycott bill in June 2021, making it the first state to identify and ban financial firms deemed to boycott fossil fuels from receiving public contracts.

Fifteen other states have enacted similar anti-boycott legislation since 2021. Check out the full list of bills in Ballotpedia’s ESG legislation tracker here.

The anti-boycott approach is one of the six major types of reforms Ballotpedia has identified opposing ESG in public policy. There are five major types of reforms supporting ESG. To see the full list of approaches supporting and opposing ESG, click here.

Ballotpedia tracks support for and opposition to the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investing movement. To learn more about arguments for, against, and about ESG, click here.