'We're not recording, right?' Ken Paxton aide unwittingly spills on secret plan

A top deputy for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton unknowingly spilled the Republican administration's plan to undermine clean energy efforts in favor of the oil and gas Texas is known for, according to reporting in Rolling Stone.

Reporter Lauren Windsor obtained a secret recording of Paxton's top deputy, First Assistant AG Brent Webster, speaking in January to a group of conservatives and fossil fuel advocates.

“We’re not recording this, right?" Webster is heard saying. "Please don’t quote me, because I’m telling the inside story on this.”

On the recording, Webster "recalled how his office moved to cut off lucrative bond business to Wells Fargo," Windsor wrote. "Webster then shared how he, in a private dinner at the governor’s mansion with Gov. Greg Abbott, Paxton, and the bank’s execs, told the bank Texas could 'reinstate the bond market' if it left the Net Zero Banking Alliance," with a mandate to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

When the Wells Fargo team seemed to balk, Webster bragged that he could easily file an antitrust lawsuit against them "right now."

The Texas AG's office was successful using the method against BlackRock and other major management firms" in the past. Windsor wrote. So much so that when Webster called up Wells Fargo and warned, 'you guys might be next,' it worked."

Wells Fargo left the Net Zero Banking Alliance a week later, Webster said, and then all the banks "started dropping like flies."

Once the banks abandoned the clean energy crusade, "Paxton allowed them to get municipal bond business again," Windsor wrote. She was unable to obtain comment from Paxton's office for the piece.

Read The Rolling Stone article here.