West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore Says State Outperformed BlackRock, Other Blacklisted ESG Firms

By admin On Feb 23, 2023

West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore said on Wednesday the West Virginia Board of Treasury Investments (WVBTI) outperformed the funds run by BlackRock and other firms blacklisted from doing business with the state the last year for boycotting the fossil fuel industry.

The WVBTI, which manages the short-term operating funds for the state and local governments and is chaired by Moore, announced it was divesting from BlackRock for pushing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards last January.

Then, later in the year, the West Virginia legislature passed legislation proposed by Moore to create a blacklist of financial institutions boycotting the fossil fuel industry.

Moore wrote in a press release:

The West Virginia Board of Treasury Investments’ state Money Market Pool has consistently received the top ‘AAAm’ rating from Standard & Poor’s.

According to an analysis of other private AAAm-rated money market funds, the West Virginia Money Market Pool’s 3.84-percent quarterly net yield for the fourth quarter of 2022 outperformed all the leading First Tier Institutional private money market funds – including those run by BlackRock, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley.

“Our latest performance clearly shows that when you focus on generating the best financial returns instead of social change, you will produce the best outcomes for your clients and investors,” Moore said in a statement. “The fact that the [WVBTI] is now outperforming the largest Wall Street firms shows that this industry-wide worship of ESG is a farce that’s robbing returns and prosperity from their clients.”

Activists are pressuring banks to stop investing in fossil fuels in the name of stopping “climate change” as gas and oil prices soar. https://t.co/G80RqaGAme

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) April 1, 2022

Moore has been an outspoken critic of the financial industry pushing ESG standards — which boycotts the fossil fuel industry and hurts his state, in addition to promoting social causes favored by the left.

The Republican state treasurer also noted besides outperforming the broader market, the assets under WVBTI topped the $10 billion mark — $10,242,699,000 specifically — for the first time in the state’s history as of the end of January 2o23.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.

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