ALEC is trying to force businesses to SUPPORT fossil fuels/climate change

[Thomas Veil]

ALEC is already infamous for creating and promoting some despicable legislation, but this one is perhaps their worst.

Rightwing lobby group Alec driving laws to blacklist companies that boycott the oil industry

The American Legislative Exchange Council has drafted legislation modelled on efforts to block divestment from Israel

www.theguardian.com

The influential rightwing lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) is driving a surge in new state laws to block boycotts of the oil industry. The group’s strategy, which aims to protect large oil firms and other conservative-friendly industries, is modelled on legislation to punish divestment from Israel.

Since the beginning of the year, state legislatures in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Indiana have introduced a version of a law drafted by Alec, called the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, to shield big oil from share selloffs and other measures intended to protest the fossil fuel industry’s role in the climate crisis. A dozen other states have publicly supported the intent of the legislation.

Texas has already begun compiling a list of companies to target for refusing to do business with the oil industry after the state passed a version of the law last year. Top of the list is the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock.

...At that meeting in San Diego, members of Alec’s energy taskforce voted to promote the model legislation requiring banks and financial companies to sign a pledge to not boycott petroleum companies in order to obtain state contracts. The wording closely resembles that of laws drafted by Alec and adopted in more than 30 states to block support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.

The legislation written by Alec, which has a history of extreme denial of the climate crisis, claims that “American and European fossil energy producers … are among the most socially and environmentally responsible companies in the world”. It laments that “corporations are boycotting fossil energy companies by refusing to provide them with products or services”, and says that share selloffs by financial funds hurt investors.

“Banks are increasingly denying financing to creditworthy fossil energy companies solely for the purpose of decarbonizing their lending portfolios and marketing their environmental credentials,” the draft legislation says.

As with anti-BDS laws, any business with more than 10 employees would have to certify that it is not boycotting fossil fuel companies in order to do business with a state government. State funds, such as pensions, will usually be obliged to sell investments in corporations that refuse loans to the oil industry.

How do you like that, huh? Do businesses with the fossil fuel industry--or else.

I really wish Biden and the DOJ were more aggressive, take-charge kind of people, because I'd love to see them introduce ALEC to another four letter concept: RICO.

 

[Yoused]

How do you like that, huh? Do businesses with the fossil fuel industry--or else.

Because, free market capitalism – as long as it is the kind of "free" market that we approve of.