California’s insurance commissioner, who has required San Antonio’s USAA and other insurers to disclose their fossil fuel investments, is drawing the wrath of Texas’ attorney general and officials from 12 other states.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this week joined 11 other Republican attorneys general and Kentucky’s GOP governor in signing on to a letter demanding that California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, a Democrat, stop requiring insurance companies to report their fossil fuel investments and signing a “pledge” to divest from such holdings.
“The threats made by the California insurance commissioner will hurt families, businesses and insurance carriers across the nation,” Paxton said in a statement. “These requirements are misguided, unrelated to insurance regulation, and are clearly politically driven. We will not stand by while negligent, politically motivated requirements harm the livelihood of thousands of U.S. citizens.”
Jones introduced a climate change database, which discloses the amount of gas, oil, coal and utility investments held by insurance companies. All insurance companies with at least $100 million in annual premiums in California were required to report the information.
Four USAA insurance companies were included in the database with about $4.5 billion in combined coal, oil and gas investments. USAA Life Insurance Co., the largest of the four based on its $22.2 billion in assets under management, had $3.4 billion, or 15 percent of its assets, invested in fossil fuels.
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