{"id":24969,"date":"2026-04-30T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=867789"},"modified":"2026-04-30T06:00:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:00:56","slug":"red-state-ags-call-out-credit-rating-companies-over-esg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2026\/04\/30\/red-state-ags-call-out-credit-rating-companies-over-esg\/","title":{"rendered":"Red-State AGs Call Out Credit-Rating Companies Over ESG"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Knudsen-Drummond-Bailey-Bloomberg-580x387.jpg\"><\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/app\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Knudsen-Drummond-Bailey-Bloomberg-scaled.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/national\/2026\/04\/30\/867789.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/national\/2026\/04\/30\/867789.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p class=\"bloomberg\">A group of state attorneys general wrote to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and major credit-rating firms, <a href=\"https:\/\/oklahoma.gov\/content\/dam\/ok\/en\/oag\/news-documents\/2026\/april\/2026.04.22%20-%20Letter%20to%20Ratings%20Agencies.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">raising concerns<\/a> about the use of environmental, social and governance factors in downgrade decisions.<\/p>\n<p>The officials from 23 Republican-led states, which include Texas, Florida and Oklahoma, said Fitch Ratings, Moody\u2019s Corp. and S&amp;P Global Ratings have \u201cundisclosed material conflicts of interest,\u201d in part because they have pledged to a United Nations-backed organization to incorporate ESG into their analysis.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said Tuesday in a statement that credit-rating companies have taken action against states and municipalities based on \u201cspeculative ESG assumptions that never materialized.\u201d He said they \u201cstrayed from their own methodologies in downgrading, or threatening to downgrade, states and municipalities with fossil-fuel production revenues, which is why I am stepping in to demand answers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The letter signed by Drummond, a candidate for Oklahoma governor, and the other attorneys general marks the latest attack on ESG by GOP lawmakers. They have accused money managers of colluding to influence energy markets and curb coal output, and have proposed legislation to protect US companies from European ESG regulations.<\/p>\n<p>Attention is now turning to credit-rating companies, which affect how easily corporations and municipalities can repay debt. Downgrades typically raise borrowing costs and make it harder to attract new investors.<\/p>\n<p>The states\u2019 letter says downgrades are often \u201cpremised on far-fetched ESG goals.\u201d It calls on credit-rating companies to \u201cwithdraw from or disclose ESG commitments\u201d and \u201celiminate or disclose ESG consulting conflicts,\u201d among other actions.<\/p>\n<p>An S&amp;P spokesperson said the company is aware of the letter and \u201ctakes these matters very seriously,\u201d declining further comment. Moody\u2019s is reviewing the letter and \u201cwill engage through appropriate channels,\u201d a spokesperson said. Fitch hasn\u2019t responded to requests for comment, and an SEC spokesperson declined to comment.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, Fitch Ratings published a report saying that climate risk is threatening the credit rating for dozens of countries. The reason, Fitch says, is that more frequent extreme weather shocks are making it harder to service debt, especially among smaller nations.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext-2\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"162\" data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>A separate study from the London School of Economics and Political Science found that nature loss itself may drive government borrowing costs higher, especially in the short term.<\/p>\n<p>Photo: <em>Austin Knudsen, Montana\u2019s attorney general, Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma\u2019s attorney general, and Andrew Bailey, Missouri\u2019s then-attorney general, during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in Washington, DC, on Jan. 10, 2024. Photographer: Graeme Sloan\/Bloomberg<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"copyright-notice quiet\">Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"867789\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! Please tell us what we can do to improve this article.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-yes\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! <span class=\"percent\"><\/span>% of people found this article valuable. Please tell us what you liked about it.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-more-articles\">\n<p class=\"thank-you-text\">Here are more articles you may enjoy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"subscribe-banner subscribe-banner-in-content-2\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h4>The most important insurance news,in your inbox every business day.<\/h4>\n<p>Get the insurance industry&#8217;s trusted newsletter<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 0 Comments A group of state attorneys general wrote to the US Securities and Exchange Commission and major credit-rating firms, raising concerns about the use of environmental, social and governance factors in downgrade&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[2037,568,856,2038,2,1,467],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/red-state-ags-call-out-credit-rating-companies-over-esg.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24969"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}