OKLAHOMA CITY (Legal Newsline) — Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter announced June 20 that he and 11 other state attorneys general have authored a letter to California Insurance Commissioner David Jones seeking a cease and desist from requiring insurance companies to publicly disclose fossil fuel investments and urging companies to “pledge” to divest from the coal industry.
According to Hunter, Jones’ initiatives are actually simply 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,” Hunter said. “This misguided policy is negligent, politically driven, unrelated to insurance regulation and is risking a certain lawsuit.
Hunter was joined in the letter by 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.
“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,” Hunter said