The Texas Senate may pass a bill punishing investment funds for exiting fossil fuel investments, to counter the Wall Street megabanks and asset managers led by BlackRock which are ordering all funds to boycott oil and gas. The original report in the Texas Tribune on the bill said it would require continued oil and gas investment from some quite large funds, including the $46 billion Texas Permanent School Fund and another $62 billion in the Texas Teacher Retirement System and the Texas Municipal Retirement System. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told OilPrice.com the bill should pass easily.

If the bill becomes legislation, these public-sector funds and others will be required to exit companies “refusing to deal with, terminating business activities with, or otherwise taking any action that is intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with a company” because this company is involved in oil exploration and production. Perhaps more important, the bill would bar suits against those state and municipal funds as a result of their investments.