Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ is at the forefront of Oklahoma’s battle against environmental, social and governance investing. He's in charge of implementing the so-called boycott bill that Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed last year, aimed at punishing firms judged to be discriminating against fossil fuels. Like Texas, West Virginia and other GOP-led states, Oklahoma is coming up with a list of financial companies that could face divestment of state funds over their sustainable investment policies. Russ – a Republican who was elected treasurer last year after a six-term stint in the state legislature – comes to the job from an interesting vantage point. He formerly headed the Oklahoma state banking association, a group similar to ones that have led resistance to boycott bills in some other red states. For Russ, the distinction between major financial behemoths and the kind of community banks he represented is key as he weighs the best way to proceed. "My list may be very different from someone else's list," he said. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Are you in favor of this anti-ESG approach? Or are you in favor of what the legislature’s having you do? You really have to go look and be able to interpret between the lines, what it’s meaning, because most of the sizable oil and gas companies have ESG statements. Everybody has an ESG statement, and that's kind of beginning to get lost in the conversation. I just came from a board meeting and an investment person made the comment in the formal statement about anti-ESG. And I wanted to say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, it's not anti-ESG. It's anti-discrimination using ESG.’ I definitely am opposed to anyone discriminating against Oklahoma industries and American industries, especially oil and gas, energy, agriculture, those kinds of things. A lot of financial associations, like bankers associations, have pushed against these anti-ESG laws. It's interesting to me that you're a former banker, but you're having to enforce this. That's a great point to make. But I will clarify that there is a distinct difference in community banks and large money managers and the small community banks are critical to especially the Midwest and in the United States of America. There's a clear distinction when it gets into them discriminating against the hand that feeds them versus the smaller ones that reach out and try to help and give them a hand up. I admire and appreciate and have great friends in the banking industry and come from a long line of that, but I just don't want someone picking on my industries in Oklahoma. Have you gotten pushback from the state banking association? Anytime your bread and butter’s getting called on the carpet, you're a little bit nervous and have questions, but I wouldn't call it pushback. I've had some concern from some of my oil and gas people which really surprised me, and I don't know if they're unclear on what all this is going to turn into, and I'm sure there's different sources of funding that some of them get and some of them don't get. So it's kind of surprising, the players out there on the field.
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