“Why some financial institutions choose policies designed to create energy poverty is mystifying.”
It’s what Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma President Brook A. Simmons said recently after the State Treasurer listed Barclays PLC on the list of financial firms banned from state business because of the firm’s discrimination against the oil and gas industry. The action by Treasurer Todd Russ was made prior to a judge’s suspension of the Oklahoma Energy Discrimination Elimination Act in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 2022 Act.
Simmons is of the opinion that Barclays chose to discriminate against the state’s major industry.
“This year, Barclays announced it would no longer provide project or direct financing for upstream oil and gas expansion and infrastructure projects and has a very limited appetite for financing companies focused on oil and natural gas exploration and production,” added Simmons.
“As Oklahoma’s economy and revenue structure remain steadfastly built upon an oil and gas foundation, Barclays seems to have self-selected not to do business with the State of Oklahoma.”
Simmons continued that crude oil and natural gas are critical to life and without hydrocarbons, the world would go dark and society would collapse.
“No modern medical care nor medicines, no reliable heating nor cooling, no transportation beyond that which existed in the mid-1800s. Meanwhile the United States leads the world in greenhouse gas emimssions reductions, primarily as a result of fuel switching to clean-burning natural gas for power generation.”