Attorney General Hunter: Commissioner's initiatives aim to harm energy industry
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has authored and sent a letter to California Insurance Commissioner David Jones requesting Commissioner Jones cease and desist from requiring insurance companies to publicly disclose investments in fossil fuels and urging companies to sign a “pledge” to divest from the coal industry.
Attorney General Hunter was joined in the letter by 11 other state attorneys general and one governor.
The commissioner is also requiring insurance companies to disclose investments in oil, gas and coal. The financial disclosures and decisions on whether to sign the “pledge” are then made public on the California Insurance Department’s website.
Attorney General Hunter said Jones’s initiatives are nothing more than ham-handed extremist environmental policy.
“One in every four Oklahomans works in the energy industry and the California Insurance Commissioner’s threats stand to harm families, businesses and insurance carriers in our state,” Attorney General Hunter said. “This misguided policy is negligent, politically driven, unrelated to insurance regulation and is risking a certain lawsuit.
“I will not stand by while Jones promotes his stance on a social issue totally unrelated to his job as an insurance regulator that will harm tens of thousands of Oklahoma businesses and citizens.”
Along with Attorney General Hunter, the attorneys general of Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming and the governor of Kentucky, signed the letter.
To view the letter, click here.