Press Releases

State Treasurer Riley Moore today criticized the creation of the recently announced “Office of Environmental Justice” under the U.S. Department of Justice, saying it is the latest in the Biden Administration’s attempts to impose Green New Deal social issues on Americans.

“With the Office of Environmental Justice, President Biden is reviving an old Obama Administration tactic of using the weight of federal regulatory agencies to impose massive financial penalties on companies and financial institutions, then using that money to create slush funds for the radical social programs they failed to pass in Congress,” Treasurer Moore said.

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the creation of the Office, saying it epitomized the Biden-Harris Administration’s priority of holding companies “accountable as a means to deliver on our environmental justice priorities.”

The Office will be a “central hub,” leveraging the full power of the Justice Department’s litigators, investigators, and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices across the country to identify cases that could promote the Administration’s environmental justice goals.

Treasurer Moore said this Office is just the Administration’s latest attempt at using command-and-control tactics to centrally plan a radical socialist Green New Deal environmental agenda which has failed to pass Congress on multiple occasions.

“This new Office will do nothing but environmental racketeering to shake down legitimate businesses to benefit preferred social programs,” Treasurer Moore said. “This is the same Justice Department that treats concerned parents like domestic terrorists, and now we’re supposed to expect them to be benevolent stewards of environmental justice? Not a chance.

“This is the latest step in this Administration’s disturbing trend toward socialist central command authorities. They are already using the globalist financial giants of Wall Street to pressure banks to enforce their environmental agenda, and their SEC is imposing new climate rules on companies to further it as well. It’s time for states and our Congressional representatives to take action to push back against this unprecedented power grab and restore the principles of the free market in this country.”

The Treasury does not collect state taxes. Visit the The West Virginia State Tax Department for assistance.

West Virginia State Treasurer's Office
1900 Kanawha Boulevard
Capitol Complex Building #1, Room E-145
Charleston, West Virginia 25305
304-558-5000 Toll Free: 800-422-7498
Hours: 8:30am-4:30pm (ET)

Copyright 2024 by West Virginia State Treasury Privacy Statement