Wyoming Demands Explanations For ESG-Driven Downgrades

23 state attorneys general are asking the three top ratings agencies to explain their “ESG-driven” downgrades of coal, gas, and oil companies.

In a letter, the attorneys general allege these agencies are pushing a radical climate agenda.

Executive director of Consumers’ Research Will Hild told The Center Square that ratings agencies – Fitch, Moody's, and S&P – "should be providing objective financial analysis for consumers and investors to rely on, not using their market power to push woke ideology.”

“As the state attorneys general expose in this letter, these ratings groups have been weaponizing their credit ratings in an effort to push a radical ESG agenda,” Hild said. “Instead of providing analysis through the lens of fiduciary duty and financial prosperity, these woke activists are colluding with UN-backed climate activists and using flawed methodologies to meet arbitrary net-zero and ESG goals,”

In their letter, the Attorneys General wrote that the ratings agencies have used “flawed methodologies to downgrade, or to threaten to downgrade, states and municipalities with fossil-fuel production revenues,” and “yet [the agencies] largely have not reversed the [downgrades] after highly speculative ESG predictions proved to be wrong.”

The states' attorneys general requested five actions: “explain ESG-driven downgrades,” “withdraw from or disclose ESG commitments,” “revise sector-specific methodologies,” “eliminate or disclose ESG consulting conflicts,” and “certify internal controls review.”

“Failure to take these corrective actions will inform the undersigned attorneys general’s assessment of whether enforcement action under state UDAP laws, antitrust investigation, referral to the SEC’s Office of Credit Ratings, or coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice is warranted,” the attorneys general wrote.

The 23 state attorneys general that signed the letter to S&P, Fitch, and Moody’s hail from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.