Stresses Need for State Actions to Combat Anti-Fossil Fuel Agenda
West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore today condemned President Joe Biden for sending letters to U.S. oil producers blaming them for high prices when the blame truly lies with the Administration’s anti-fossil fuel agenda.
“The President lecturing the oil industry about high prices is the height of hypocrisy,” Treasurer Moore said. “If President Biden is looking for someone to blame for high gas prices, he need only to look in the mirror. From day one this Administration has waged an open war on fossil fuels, and working-class Americans are now paying the price.”
Since last May, Treasurer Moore has been leading national efforts to push back against attempts by President Biden and his allies to diminish access to capital for fossil fuel companies. Those efforts began with a multi-state letter critical of Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry for privately pressuring banks to cut off lending for fossil fuel industries.
“We have been sounding the alarm for over a year now that this Administration’s command-and-control tactics to cut off coal, oil and natural gas supplies, aided by the radical ESG globalists on Wall Street, would hurt families across our country, and sadly these warnings have become reality,” Treasurer Moore said. “This only underscores the importance for our states to take aggressive action to combat these misguided, anti-American policies.”
In November, Treasurer Moore announced a 15-state coalition of state Treasurers and financial officers who have committed to reforming their state banking contract process to potentially limit business with banks that are engaged in boycotts of coal, oil and natural gas companies.
Treasurer Moore also earlier this year proposed, and the Legislature passed, legislation to restrict state business with firms engaged in financial boycotts of the fossil fuel industries. The State Treasurer’s Office is currently in the process of implementing that law.
“We need to return to energy independence in this country,” Treasurer Moore said. “Instead of going to Saudi Arabia to beg for oil while demonizing our domestic producers, President Biden should unleash American energy production by removing regulatory roadblocks to drilling, approving new pipelines like the Keystone XL, and encouraging Wall Street to resume the flow of investments and capital to fossil fuel companies.”