Banking Committee Rs to Biden: Cool it on Fossil Fuel Finance Freeze-Out

Another fed gov’t campaign to strangle legal businesses’ access to capital

From the Senate Banking Committee Republicans, a letter to the Biden White House’s climate-treaty czar John Kerry and the administration criticizing efforts to coerce banks into de-platforming fossil energy companies, and taking aim at a new global warming disclosure mandate on publicly traded companies.

Toomey, GOP Banking Members Demand Kerry, Biden Administration Stop Trying to De-Bank Energy Companies

Also Push Back on New Global Warming Disclosure Mandates for SEC-regulated Companies

Washington, D.C. – Ahead of President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate, U.S. Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and all Republican members of the committee sent a letter calling on Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry to stop pressuring banks to make energy-related lending commitments.

In the letter, the members argue that abusing government power to influence bank lending and investment practices will distort capital allocation, raise energy costs for consumers, and slow economic growth. The members also reminded Mr. Kerry that one of the main drivers of America’s economic success has been that our government is based on the rule of law—not coercion.

“Beyond the poor track record associated with central economic planning, this apparent attempt to prevent energy companies from obtaining capital disturbingly resembles the Obama administration’s notorious ‘Operation Choke Point’ scandal, in which financial regulators attempted to coerce banks into denying services to legal yet politically-disfavored businesses.”

The letter also expresses concern that President Biden will soon sign an Executive Order setting in a motion a new mandate forcing publicly-traded companies to disclose non-material information on global warming. The members wrote:

“The apparent objective of this effort is not to protect investors, but to punish lawful energy companies by deterring lending to, and investment in, such firms.”

Read the full letter here.

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