Pensioner sues Oklahoma over ESG restrictions (2023)
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Former Oklahoma state employee Don Keenan is suing the state, alleging that the Oklahoma law prohibiting state contracts with financial firms that boycott oil, gas, and other types of companies violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law:
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Don Keenan, a former state employee, is seeking a temporary restraining order against Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ and the state over the 2022 law enacted by the Republican legislature. As part of the legislation, Russ released a list of six firms that are restricted from doing business with the state. The lawsuit, filed on Monday in the district court of Oklahoma County, said the legislation is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment. “The state’s decision to use its retirees’ retirement funds as political fodder in its quixotic quest to prove a point is patently unconstitutional and violates federal law,” Keenan’s lawyer said in the suit. … The Oklahoma Public Employees Association, which represents 32,000 state employees, is part of a coalition backing the lawsuit. OPEA wants to use the temporary injunction to prevent Russ from challenging the pension’s vote or taking further action to enforce the law, Executive Director Tony DeSha said in an interview. The ultimate goal would be to get the law declared unconstitutional, he said.[1] |
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Keenan says he thinks oil and gas are important economically but argues the law, in his view, imposes unnecessary costs on the pension system:
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The cost of having to divest assets from the six blacklisted firms said to boycott the fossil-fuel industry is "monumental," the lawsuit contends, citing the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System, which would pay an estimated $10 million to divest assets from BlackRock and State Street. The other four blacklisted firms are Wells Fargo & Co., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Bank of America and Climate First Bank. "I do not have any objections to oil and gas operations and believe they are important and critical to the world economy," plaintiff Don Keenan wrote in an affidavit that is part of the lawsuit. "However, as a retiree under the OPERS system, I object to my retirement benefits being depleted because the State of Oklahoma believes that making political statements with retiree dollars is more important than taking care of retirees themselves."[1] |
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Opponents of ESG have argued that prohibiting environmental, social, and other non-financial considerations in public investments can reduce politicization and help preserve retirement savings.
See also
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
- Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's ESG newsletter
External links
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