Attorney General Daniel Cameron v. Ky Bankers: Fighting ‘woke’ banks is strange politics.

The debate is over.

Anyone who went to Eastern Kentucky in July saw the horrifying effects of massive flooding, homes and businesses destroyed in places where it had never flooded before. A month earlier, massive flooding in Pakistan killed more than 1,717, the worst flooding since ... 2020 as rivers dried up across Europe. Bigger and stronger hurricanes hit our coasts every year, while on wildfires torch drought-ridden parts of the west.

We can stop debating about climate change. It’s here and the only question left is whether we have enough time left to do anything to stop it.

Which brings us to the strange and intriguing case of the Kentucky Bankers Association v. Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

ESG is a new term to describe “environmental, social, governance” investment practices. This means a company or an investor might choose to invest in solar, rather than coal, which contributes to emissions that cause climate change It could also mean making sure the CEO of a company isn’t making 500,000 times more than his employers. The coal-bound members of the KY General Assembly decided to address it with Senate Bill 205, which allowed the state to stop doing business with any companies that boycott fossil-fuel companies.

On Oct. 19, Cameron announced he was joining a multi-state investigation into Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo for alleged antitrust and consumer protection law violations related to ESG (environmental, social, governance) investment practices. “As members of the United Nations’ Net-Zero Banking Alliance, these banks are required to set carbon emissions reduction targets in their lending and investment portfolios to eliminate carbon emissions by 2050.”

(You can see there might be a lot of things in that last sentence to make Republicans nervous, from United Nations to Net-Zero to emissions reduction targets.)

“We joined this investigation to ensure Kentucky companies that reject the Biden Administration’s anti-fossil fuel climate agenda have the same financial freedoms as those who accept it,” Cameron said in a press release.

Cameron and the other AGs have sent a raft of subpoenas to these banks for information on such “financial discrimination against companies that do not align with the United Nations’ “net-zero” climate agenda.”

But then on Nov. 1, the Kentucky Bankers Association announced it was suing Cameron because they don’t like the subpoenas, and believe as they said in their brief,Cameron will create “an ongoing state surveillance system” of banks and their customers.

“Today, it is the ESG-type issues raised by the AG’s actions,” said KBA President and CEO Ballard Cassady, “tomorrow it could be dictating interest rates or hiring practices. Kentucky banks must be allowed to make good business decisions for their bank, their customers and community without worrying about how they relate to broader ideological or political goals.”

In other words, go after so-called ‘wokeness’ somewhere else, not against banks and not while you’re running for governor. Politics sometimes makes strange bedfellows but makes even stranger enemies.

This is not to pick solely on Cameron. It’s obviously the latest run of GOP talking points about problems that do not exist, i.e. critical race theory, election fraud and groomer teachers. I was first made aware of the fight against ESG by our own Congressman Andy Barr, who instead of taking on very real issues in his home district, has made fighting ethical and socially responsible investing one of his big fights.

But seriously, someone explain what ever happened to the party of free markets and local control? Don’t banks, especially the big ones, know the best way to do their business? These are hardly long-haired hippies flashing peace signs; when any company posts a rainbow flag or invests in solar, isn’t that because in the long run, that will get them more customers? If you want to invest in a coal company, no one is stopping you. If you want your portfolio to fight climate change, you can find out where to invest too. The big banks are doing this kind of thing because enough people want their money supporting companies that are trying to save the world, not make it even hotter.

Cameron is not the first Attorney General to make a lot of noise as he runs for governor. But in a crowded GOP primary, making Kentucky’s banks so annoyed that they file a lawsuit seems shortsighted.

What would seem smarter is to acknowledge what every voter under 45 knows, that climate change is here to stay and we need our policies and politicians to fight it.

Mandi Fugate Sheffel, 41, who lives in Breathitt County and works in Hazard, is just now catching her breath after weeks of helping neighbors devastated by flooding, which was clearly driven by climate change.

“Living in this area, it’s obvious we’re in a prime position for this to happen again,” she said. “If we don’t work for something more sustainable ... we can’t go back to the way things were because we’re in line for this to happen again. I don’t understand why we keep voting for people who say they’ll bring coal back instead of bringing us into the future.”