A legal challenge was filed Monday by the state public employees association to the implementation of Oklahoma’s Energy Discrimination Act of 2022, an act that prohibits financial institutions from discriminating against the oil and gas industry.
A lawsuit was filed in Oklahoma County District Court by Don Keenan, a retired state worker and former president of the Oklahoma Public Employees Association. He represents the OPEA in its contention that the state law violates the first amendment for compelling speech, viewpoint discrimination and content discrimination.
The suit seeks a restraining order against TreasurerTodd Russ from implementing the act which removes certain financial institutions from doing business with the state if they discriminate against oil and gas through controversial ESG policies.
“There is a political effort underway in our state that if left unchecked could cost the taxpayers of the state of Oklahoma tens of millions of dollars while calling into question promises the state has made to thousands of retired public employees,” declared the OPEA website on Monday.
The OPEA contends the Treasurer used the law to override a vote and settled decision by the Board of Directors for the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System, ” in the name of leveraging the pension funds of our retired public servants as pawns in an out-of-state political campaign seeking to divest from companies some believe boycott the energy industry.”
The OPEA site said further, “This is why the Keep Oklahoma’s Promises Coalition (KOP), Oklahoma Retired Educators Association (OREA), and the Oklahoma Public Employees Association (OPEA) are proud to announce we are talking a stance against State Treasurer Todd Russ’s political games and any future politicization of our retirement funds.”
It said Kennan’s lawsuit was aimed at protecting members hard-earned retirement money. The suit contends the law is unconstitutionally vague and gives the Treasurer “unchecked power to determine what banks the state of Oklahoma can and cannot conduct business with.
Tony DeSha, OPEA Executive Director issued a supportive statement, saying, “We willnot allow Todd Russ to play politics with state employees and retirees’ money. The pensoin system is not taxpayer money, it is compensation earned by active employees who currently pay into the system and the pensioners who contributed to the same system for decades.”
He said the decision to pursue legal action against Todd Russ was not taken lightly, but the organization felt it was necessary to strengthen the fiduciary responsibility of its pension systems.
Treasurer Russ launched an effort in February to determine which financial institutions were discriminating against the Oklahoma oil and gas industry, then announced in May that 13 such institutions were banned from doing business with the state government. Among them were Blackrock, Wells Fargo & co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America and State Street.
The Treasurer updated the list in August, naming
- BlackRock, Inc.
- Wells Fargo & Co.
- JPMorgan Chase & Co.
- Bank of America, N.A.
- State Street Corp.
- Climate First Bank