Banks’ Energy Boycott Is an Antitrust Problem

America’s largest financial institutions are picking winners and losers in the energy sector for political reasons—even while the Covid-19 crisis has reduced global oil demand and a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia has flooded global markets with crude. Under pressure from environmental activists, banks are withholding desperately needed capital from oil and gas companies. In doing so, they put millions of jobs at risk and may even be violating federal antitrust law.

To protect consumers, antitrust laws prohibit unreasonable…