‘Such efforts will increase economic hardship for all our citizens and benefit foreign sources of fossil fuels, including America’s adversaries…’
(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) Large, Democratic-friendly financial institutions have increasingly taken aim at politically motivated targets like the fossil fuel industry and its workers.
Their efforts are compounding the Wuhan coronavirus economic crisis, even as big banks are receiving billions in taxpayer stimulus funds.
Now, a trio of Wyoming lawmakers is calling on President Donald Trump to step in and stop the discrimination.
“For too long, Democrats and their allies have attempted to destroy the fossil fuel industry, and they are pressuring major banking institutions to do the same,” wrote Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in an urgent letter to President Trump on Thursday.
Wyoming GOP Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso signed the letter, along with Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.; Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska.
Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is urging the president to use “every resource available” to punish offending banks and protect the vital economic energy sector.
“Such efforts will increase economic hardship for all our citizens and benefit foreign sources of fossil fuels, including America’s adversaries,” she warned.
The letter singles out BlackRock, a global investment firm based in New York City with $7.4 trillion in assets under management.
The mega-firm is a Federal Reserve fiduciary for the distribution of the $2 trillion CARES Act. However, BlackRock’s corporate leadership has refused to invest in U.S. coal and heavily discriminates against other fossil fuel investments.
“Its hostility towards the American energy sector is unacceptable and should be closely scrutinized,” said Cheney.
Other stimulus-receiving banks and financial institutions are joining together to deny financial services for oil and gas development throughout the country, from Wyoming, Alaska, North Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, to Pennsylvania, the letter says.
“Financial institutions usurping the responsibility of environmental regulators by making these unilateral determinations is not only alarming for Americans in our states, but for every American job supported by our energy sector,” Cheney said.