Asset management giant BlackRock has leveraged Oklahomans’ pension funds to advance a racial and climate agenda since 2022, according to a report from conservative watchdog group American Accountability Foundation (AAF).
Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) enlists the services of BlackRock, which managed around $4.4 billion of the system’s investments as of June 2023, according to its annual financial report. BlackRock voted 54 times to back shareholder proposals “supporting policies such as racial equity audits, gender pay gap reports, efforts to defund conservative candidates and pro-business trade associations, and radical climate policy,” according to AAF, based on documents it obtained through a public records request.
“Oklahomans deserve so much better than to have their retirement savings used as leverage for woke corporate activism,” AAF President Thomas Jones told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This inappropriate use of public funds jeopardizes the financial security of hardworking Oklahomans who depend on their pensions and endangers the livelihoods of every energy worker in America. These woke bankers and Wall Street elites are using taxpayer dollars to impose a leftist agenda on America, while making a hefty profit for themselves. This information proves once again why BlackRock must be avoided.”
BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager and a proponent of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing, which emphasizes funding green initiatives to advance climate-focused efforts, such as net-zero emissions as well as social impact efforts. OPERS has more than 72,000 members composed of the state’s public servants, according to the system’s website.
https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2024/06/26/exclusive-wall-street-giant-used-red-states-pension-funds-to-push-racial-climate-agenda-report-reveals/