Republicans are planning to use their control of the House of Representatives in 2023 to intensify attacks on companies that account for climate-related risks when they’re making investment decisions.
GOP officials in Washington and more than a dozen states say they’re focusing on firms that are using their financial power to push a so-called woke political agenda, rather than trying to maximize profits. As part of the campaign, Florida, Louisiana and Missouri have collectively pulled more than $3 billion from BlackRock over the investment firm’s consideration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Faced with the political backlash, Vanguard, another large asset manager, said it decided to withdraw from a group of investors that’s working to zero out greenhouse gas emissions by midcentury.
Republicans say they’re fighting a coordinated effort by big investors to impose progressive policies that threaten capitalism itself.
Rep. Andy Barr, a Republican from Kentucky and a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee, says ESG investing is aimed at “politicizing capital allocation and actively discriminating against fossil energy.”
ESG is “a cancer in our capital markets that must be eradicated,” Barr said in a statement to NPR.
Read more at NPR.org
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