Representative Toth Fights For Oil & Gas Jobs With New Bill

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- Today, Representative Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) announced legislation to defend oil and gas workers from the latest version of the Green New Deal.

“Banks and multinational investment corporations are cutting off financing to oil and gas companies,” said Rep. Toth. 'It's called ESG: Environmental, Social, and Governance, and investors are scoring companies by this criteria. What gets you a poor environmental score? Working in oil and gas. As members of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citi's goal is to decarbonize their investment portfolios by 2050.'

'Get this,' Toth continued, 'the Employees Retirement System, Texas' state employee pension, just cast proxy votes for shareholder resolutions to stop financing for drilling.'

In a quote to the Dallas Morning News on the pension's vote against oil and gas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said, 'Our various investment funds’ focus should be on getting the best return on their funds. If companies they invest in take positions that harm Texas, they need to re-evaluate those investments.'

Working with the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation, Rep. Toth is formulating legislation for the 2023 Legislative Session to protect against ESG. Rep. Toth's Not Woke, Not Broke Act would safeguard access to loans for oil and gas companies. Similar legislation passed by the 87th Legislature protected gun manufacturers by requiring banks underwriting Texas bonds to certify they do not deny service to gun manufacturers.

“Last year, the Texas Legislature stood up to banks who were blocking funds to gun manufacturers,” said Rep. Toth. “Now we’re fighting for oil and gas. It’s time to draw a line in the sand.”

Montgomery County resident Brad Olsen remarked, “My insurance policy was canceled simply because I do work in the oil and gas industry. I then reached out to my Representative, Steve Toth, to go to bat for guys like me. Steve’s the first lawmaker in Texas that I know of to sound the alarm and start working on legal protections from predatory ESG policies.”

Steve Toth is a small business owner representing South Montgomery County in the Texas House of Representatives. Representative Toth has been a contributor on American Family Radio, KTRH, ABC, CNN, Newsmax, OAN, and Fox News.