Senators send Biden letter over ESG regulations (2022)
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In the Senate, 12 Republican members sent a letter to President Biden asking him to consider what they deem the negative effects of his administration’s approach to ESG:
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President Biden's push to impose environmental, social and governance standards (ESG) on companies is imposing significant costs on companies and hurting families, Sen. John Thune warned Biden in a letter on Wednesday. "While businesses may elect to pursue their own ESG agendas as part of a free-market society, the heavy-handed imposition from the federal government will have (and in some cases, already has had) negative real-world impacts on our economy and American families, especially by deepening the ongoing energy and inflation crises," wrote Thune, R-S.D., in a letter reviewed exclusively by Fox News Digital. "These efforts, though sold by administration officials as steps necessary to mitigate climate risks, are solely an attempt to strong-arm financial institutions and other firms into choking off capital to industries that are foundational to our nation’s economy, yet are continually villainized by the far left," he wrote. Thune said one example of overreach is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s proposed climate-disclosure rule that would not only require registrants to disclose information about their own greenhouse gas emissions, but, in many cases, report indirect emissions "from upstream and downstream activities (i.e., their suppliers and customers)" in their value chain – known as scope 3 emissions…. Thune said the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Federal Reserve have all published draft principles for climate-related financial risk management for large banks. The Department of Labor just finalized a rule that would require pension fiduciaries to consider climate change and ESG factors in making investment decisions, regardless of their financial relevance. "And last, but certainly not least, the National Credit Union Administration published a since-rescinded strategic plan that seemed to recommend credit unions need to alter their field of membership and loan offerings in farming communities," Thune said. Thune warned Biden that while his ESG push is generally aimed at big banks on Wall Street, the president needs to recognize the "trickledown effect" those policies have on local community banks and credit unions which are "feeling the pressure from Washington" to comply. Thune says that those community financial entities are worried about how the Biden administration’s environmental agenda "could impede their ability to lend to their clients and foster the growth necessary to steer our economy away from a recession."[1] |
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See also
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
- Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's ESG newsletter
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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