Not long ago, the Center for Media and Democracy’s Alex Kotch reported on an ominous development in the fight to prevent climate disaster. Emails show that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Koch brothers’ venture that writes legislation for state and federal government on behalf of corporate interests, approved a new model bill to let state governments blackball financial institutions that divest from fossil fuels. It’s a response to mounting headlines of firms announcing or pledging such divestment after pressure from consumers and activists.
“This model proposes a strategy in which states use their collective economic purchasing power to counter the rise of politically motivated and discriminatory investing practices,” wrote Jason Isaac from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, another oligarch-funded venture that works as a state-level ALEC subsidiary.