The State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) is an organization that pushes Republican State Treasurers to adopt anti-responsible investing policies and, as The New York Times wrote, “to use their power to promote oil and gas interests and to stymie Mr. Biden’s climate agenda.” SFOF is significantly funded by Leonard Leo’s Consumers Research and has contracted with Leo’s Chevron-connected firm CRC Advisors. They also receive significant financial backing from the oil-funded Heritage Foundation.
Coordinated Action & Polluter Funding. The organization is closely tied to Consumers Research and the Heritage Foundation, having worked with both in drafting two anti-responsible investment model bills for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Leonard Leo’s Consumers Research and the oil industry funded Heritage Foundation are also two of the largest funders of SFOF, with Consumers Research contributing a total of $467,500 from 2021–2022 and Heritage Foundation giving the organization $100,000 in 2022. In 2022, SFOF also hired Leonard Leo’s CRC Advisors — a firm that counts oil giant Chevron as client — for their anti-ESG campaign.
Self-Interested Billionaires. The SFOF also has strong ties to the oil industry. According to the New York Times, The State Financial Officers Foundation and their member treasurers have hosted representatives from the oil industry and conservative groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry, and worked with them in shaping their national strategy. Investigative watchdog Documented reported that in May 2022 the SFOF and member treasurers hosted a call on the SEC’s climate disclosure rule with the American Petroleum Institute (API), the largest oil and gas lobby in the United States. Shortly after that call, the SFOF sent a letter signed by more than a dozen state treasurers calling the SEC climate disclosure rule “irrational climate exceptionalism, elevating climate issues to a place of prominence in disclosures that they do not deserve.” Documented also noted that in June 2022, an SFOF policy alert containing prominent API logos and policy asks by the oil industry was distributed to SFOF member treasurers.
Fact: Two thirds of voters support the SEC’s climate disclosure rule, including the majority of Republican voters.