Drummond scores victory for consumer choice, corporate accountability
OKLAHOMA CITY (March 27, 2025) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond and 14 other state attorneys general have concluded their investigation into Wells Fargo and Company following that company’s decision to abandon its misguided Environmental Social Governance (ESG) policies.
Drummond and the coalition had been investigating whether Wells Fargo and five other American banks — Bank of America Corporation, Citigroup Inc., The Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley — violated antitrust or consumer protection laws by implementing net-zero emissions policies and restricting financing.
“Our investigation successfully forced Wells Fargo to do right by their customers,” Drummond said. “We will continue to look into the five additional banks and will hold them accountable if any wrongdoing is found.”
By joining initiatives like the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which required member banks to align their portfolios to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and set specific targets for “carbon-intensive sectors” by 2030, these banks potentially compromised their fiduciary obligations to customers and investors and simultaneously usurped the policy-making authority of America’s elected representatives.
Recently, Wells Fargo announced that it was ending its membership in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance. Wells Fargo further announced that it was “discontinuing our sector-specific 2030 interim financed emissions targets and our goal to achieve net zero by 2050 for financed emissions.” While other banks have also recently ended their Net-Zero Banking Alliance memberships, only Wells Fargo has publicly ended the ESG goals mandated by the Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
In addition to Oklahoma, the coalition of attorneys general includes Tennessee, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
