Cornhusker State News

Consumers' Research has issued a warning about the world's largest money management firm to 10 states that have the most pension money invested through the company, outlining what it deems are concerning investment ties to Chinese companies.

Nebraska, Washington, South Carolina, Oklahoma, New York, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Montana, Florida and West Virginia received letters from Consumers' Research executive director Will Hild.

Nebraska has the fifth-most amount invested with the firm BlackRock at $9.4 billion, according to the Daily Signal.

“The warning is meant to raise awareness among American consumers that BlackRock is taking their money and betting on China,” Hild said in the letter. “In so doing they are putting American security at risk, along with billions of dollars from U.S. investors, including many state-run pension plans.”

Hild said BlackRock has “maintained a bullish approach” by investing billions of dollars in Chinese firms. He denounced the Chinese for their ongoing human rights violations, and also noted that funding China could bolster their military, which recently tested a hypersonic missile.

“Investment in Chinese companies could also make U.S. investors unwitting accomplices in the expansion of the Chinese Communist Party's surveillance and intelligence gathering apparatus or worse yet, make them party to human rights abuses like the ongoing genocide against Uyghurs in Xinjiang, China,” Hild wrote.

According to the Wall Street Journal, BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink sent a letter to companies that BlackRock invests in, saying businesses not planning for a carbon-free future could be left behind. He said it was a focus of BlackRock to lead the transition to “net-zero.” 

According to industrialprogress.com, Fink said BlackRock supports the hydrocarbon industry as long as it is transitioning to green energy. His letter states that BlackRock is focused on the net-zero goal, but “divesting from entire sectors - or simply passing carbon-intensive assets from public markets to private markets - will not get the world to net zero.”

“BlackRock does not pursue divestment from oil and gas companies as a policy,” Fink said in the letter.

Some states have recently pushed back against BlackRock since the December letter. 

Houston Daily reported that Texas has taken actions to boycott companies like BlackRock due to discrimination against the oil and gas industry.

“As you prepare the official list of companies that boycott energy companies, I ask that you include BlackRock, and any company like them, that choose to hurt Texas oil and gas energy companies by boycotting them in violation of Senate Bill 13," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a letter to the state comptroller.

On Jan. 17, West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore announced that the Board of Treasury Investments will no longer use BlackRock, according to SWFi. Because the company has urged companies to embrace net-zero investments, Riley says this would harm coal, oil and natural gas industries that West Virginia relies on.