{"id":2282657,"date":"2024-06-24T12:27:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T16:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blackrock-to-fund-new-texas-stock-exchange-as-it-tries-to-get-in-states-good-graces-washington-examiner\/"},"modified":"2024-06-24T12:34:38","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T16:34:38","slug":"blackrock-to-fund-new-texas-stock-exchange-as-it-tries-to-get-in-states-good-graces-washington-examiner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blackrock-to-fund-new-texas-stock-exchange-as-it-tries-to-get-in-states-good-graces-washington-examiner\/","title":{"rendered":"BlackRock to fund new Texas stock exchange as it tries to get in state\u2019s good graces &#8211; Washington Examiner"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">38<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fblackrock-to-fund-new-texas-stock-exchange-as-it-tries-to-get-in-states-good-graces-washington-examiner%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2282657&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>BlackRock, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/elon-musk-the-s-in-esg-stands-for-satanic\/\" title=\"Elon Musk: \u2018The S In ESG Stands For Satanic\u2019\">prominent asset management firm<\/a>, is moving to establish \u200ca new stock exchange in Dallas,\u2062 Texas. This initiative, which intends to rival the major exchanges like NYSE and NASDAQ, involves a significant investment of $120 million. This move comes after BlackRock faced political opposition from Texas Republicans for its previous\u200b emphasis on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investing. The \u2064conflict reached a point where Texas threatened to sever \u200cbusiness relations with the\u200b firm.<\/p>\n<p>The controversy centered on BlackRock&#8217;s support for ESG principles,\u200b leading to the firm dropping the ESG acronym amid criticisms and exiting groups like\u200b Climate Action 100+. However,\u2064 while BlackRock&#8217;s\u200c international subsidiary\u200b joined \u2064the\u2064 same group, escalating accusations of inconsistent messaging. Backed by \u200ca hefty investment, the newly proposed Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) promises\u200b a CEO-friendly and regulatory-lenient operating environment\u2062 compared to its New\u200c York counterparts, aiming for\u200d registration with the SEC within the\u2064 year.<\/p>\n<p>the\u200c establishment of the \u200cTXSE and deviation from\u200b traditional ESG\u200c rhetoric represent BlackRock&#8217;s strategic efforts to mend relations\u200c with conservative\u200c Texas leaders while still \u200cholding onto its broader investment commitments on a global \u2062scale.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Reporter's Notebook: Can Biden find a deal with oil companies to bring prices down?\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e2sehqBBxlI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen   style=\"display:none\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The giant asset manager BlackRock\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/blackrock\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"efforts\">efforts<\/a> to start a new<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/section\/policy\/finance-and-economy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\" stock exchange\"> stock exchange<\/a> in Texas may help it get back into the state\u2019s good graces after highly publicized disputes with Republican officeholders over environmental, social, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/west-virginia-primary-election-sets-stage-for-post-manchin-future\/\" title=\"West Virginia primary election paves the way for the post-Manchin era\">corporate governance investing<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>BlackRock\u2019s plans to invest in the $120 million Dallas-based Texas Stock Exchange, which is meant to challenge the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, represents the latest of several recent overtures to Texas Republicans after a spat over the role that ESG should play in the firm\u2019s investment decisions. BlackRock stood to lose out dearly if Texas followed through on its threats to cut it off from business.<\/p>\n<p>At its peak in 2023, the dispute over ESG investing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/2927532\/texas-withdraws-8-billion-blackrock-over-esg-biggest-divestment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"became so heated\">became so heated<\/a> that Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for the state to \u201cblacklist\u201d firms such as BlackRock that prioritized <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"ESG issues\">ESG<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>BlackRock has since backed away from using the term ESG altogether. Some view BlackRock\u2019s decision to invest in a new Texas stock exchange as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/daily-on-energy\/2943151\/daily-on-energy-tracking-all-the-biden-rules-on-methane\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"part of a larger campaign\">part of a larger campaign<\/a> by CEO Larry Fink to mollify the state\u2019s conservatives.<\/p>\n<p>Helping finance the stock exchange represents the latest iteration of BlackRock \u201cglad-handing Texas legislators and elected officials,\u201d Will Hild, the executive director of Consumer Report, told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>BlackRock holds more than $320 billion in global energy investments, including approximately $120 billion investments in Texas-based publicly traded energy companies \u2014 meaning that a full boycott from Texas, if realized, could have proved punishing for the company.<\/p>\n<p>BlackRock \u201cis basically trying to mend fences right now without actually giving up any of the commitments they\u2019ve made to the left,\u201d Hild said.<\/p>\n<p>Much of it will depend on how the exchange is created, and how closely the exchange hews to its goal of achieving a better operating environment than the NYSE or NASDAQ.<\/p>\n<p>TXSE CEO James Lee told the <em>Wall Street Journal<\/em> this month that the exchange will seek to be \u201cmore CEO-friendly\u201d than its New York alternatives and will operate in a more relaxed regulatory environment. The $120 million that the TXSE has already raked up in private funding will also make it the single largest entrant to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which it plans to do sometime this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m cautiously optimistic\u201d about the new Texas stock exchange, Hild said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping they look at what\u2019s happening in NASDAQ and NYSE and say \u2026 \u2018We are going to be what they used to be, but also with protections to keep us from getting veered into where they have now gone.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>A tricky ESG history<\/h2>\n<p>Last summer, Fink <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/biden-administration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"backtracked\">backtracked<\/a> on BlackRock\u2019s ESG push, saying in a letter to investors that BlackRock would no longer use the politically charged acronym to guide investment decisions.<\/p>\n<p>It also exited Climate Action 100+, an investor group of some 700 members focused on emissions reduction efforts.<\/p>\n<p>BlackRock has also moved to give individual investors greater ability to decide how their share of funds would vote on the companies they own, an effort to push back on Republican criticisms that it was putting the thumb on the scale for ESG and curtailing shareholders\u2019 power.<\/p>\n<p>But at the same time, other moves were criticized. BlackRock\u2019s decision to leave Climate Action 100+ came at the same time that its international subsidiary, BlackRock International, joined Climate Action 100+. The decision by its international subsidiary to join the group was praised by asset managers in Europe, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.responsible-investor.com\/uk-asset-owner-review-finds-growing-stewardship-misalignment-with-managers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"including\">including<\/a> Faith Ward, a senior official at Brunel Pension Partnership, who said she was \u201cdelighted\u201d by the decision.<\/p>\n<p>But it prompted allegations of doublespeak, including by Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar. <\/p>\n<p>Officials in Democrat-led states, including New York, also criticized the partial withdrawal.<\/p>\n<p>BlackRock did not respond to the <em>Washington Examiner\u2019s<\/em> request for comment on its relationship with Texas leadership.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the stock exchange venture is one of many overtures BlackRock has made to Republicans after the row with leaders in Texas and other Republican-led states.<\/p>\n<p>Fink, in recent months, has pitched a reformulated approach of \u201cenergy pragmatism,\u201d or the view that the world will need both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/climate-price-tag-is-more-than-entire-world-gdp-treasury-secretary-says\/\" title=\"Climate Price Tag Is More Than Entire World GDP, Treasury Secretary Says\">renewable energy resources<\/a> and fossil fuels to meet the dual priorities of decarbonization and energy security in the years ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Fink first used the term in the asset management in BlackRock\u2019s 2024 Letter to Investors this May, further signaling what could be seen as a more moderated public approach.<\/p>\n<p>Other events appear to bolster this view: In February, Fink appeared at an event in Houston alongside Patrick, where he dubbed Fink the \u201cking of Wall Street\u201d and welcomed Fink\u2019s offer to help the state secure up to $10 billion in private investments to support its aging power grid.<\/p>\n<p>Fink, in return, touted the \u201ccommonality\u201d they had found despite their differences. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a business leader and a leader of government, we saw that those differences can be minimized quite, quite quickly,\u201d Fink told the audience, \u201cand that there was a lot of commonality and a lot of same interests. And the same interest was how to build a stronger future for Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Public damage<\/h2>\n<p>Despite this public show of fence-mending, some level of reputational damage appears to have already been done. <\/p>\n<p>In March, the Texas State Board of Education terminated an $8.5 billion investment with BlackRock \u2014sparking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blackrock.com\/us\/individual\/literature\/press-release\/blk-response-texas-state-board-of-education.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"criticism\">criticism<\/a> from the group, which noted that it currently manages the pensions of some 2 million residents in the state.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Other states, such as West Virginia and Oklahoma, have also added BlackRock to their own list of companies viewed as hostile to the fossil fuel industry<\/p>\n<p>Most recently, the House Judiciary Committee\u2019s Republican majority published an interim staff report earlier this year blasting Climate Action 100+ and other groups as a \u201cclimate cartel\u201d of left-wing activist groups and major financial institutions, which it accused of \u201ccolluding\u201d to force participation on ESG investing, in a possible violation of federal antitrust law.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BlackRock&#8217;s initiative to launch a new $120 million Texas Stock Exchange in Dallas could mend its strained relations with Texas Republicans, who have criticized its environmental and social governance investing. This move positions BlackRock to potentially regain favor in the state<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2650,"featured_media":2282658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Wall-Street-ESG-Investing-Texas--scaled-1024x683.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[7002,6513,32448,3694],"class_list":["post-2282657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-blackrock","tag-funding","tag-stock-exchange","tag-texas"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Wall-Street-ESG-Investing-Texas--scaled-1024x683.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2282657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2282658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2282657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2282657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2282657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}