House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today released a Democratic staff report titled, “Unsustainable and Unoriginal: How the Republicans Borrowed a Bogus Antitrust Theory to Protect Big Oil." The report highlights what Democratic members and staff have learned about Chairman Jordan's aimless crusade against the use of Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) policies, doing the bidding of dark money groups with ties to former Trump administration officials, the oil and gas industry, and prominent far-right activists and donors through their frivolous antitrust investigation.
In the forward to the Report, Ranking Member Nadler writes, in part:
"This report details how Chairman Jordan copied his entire strategy—his theories about the Sherman Act, his overbroad oversight requests, and his aggressive use of subpoenas—from one Texas-based “think tank.” The Majority did not find evidence of wrongdoing in the 2.5 million pages of documents they collected over the course of this investigation, but that was never the point. Their purpose was to use the Committee as a cudgel, and to bully investors into withdrawing from ESG partnerships. And when they succeeded, this report also shows, they took to social media to gloat about it."
In the executive summary, the Report reads, in part:
"Investor-led ESG initiatives respond to a genuine demand from investors for greater transparency into public companies’ exposure to climate change. Institutional investors, many of them public pension funds with a fiduciary duty to their individual plan holders, need to understand how the corporations they invest in will bear the effects of a changing climate and their preparedness for the coming transition to a climate-resilient economy. Asset managers, in turn, owe a duty to the clients whose money they invest to ensure that public companies have adequately accounted for climate-based risk.
The evidence produced in this investigation undermines, rather than supports, theories of potential antitrust liability for these ESG initiatives. Financial institutions that commit to reduce financing for carbon-emitting activity do so independently and voluntarily. By encouraging companies to provide investors with more information about material risks from climate change, ESG initiatives promote competition.
This investigation is an abuse of the Committee’s oversight authority. The weakness of Chairman Jordan’s case, combined with the broader landscape of right-wing attacks on ESG, leads us to conclude that the Majority launched this investigation with an improper purpose; namely, to impose a cost on investors and financial institutions that take seriously the threat of climate change and to chill legitimate business activity. Chairman Jordan’s weaponization of the Committee in service of far-right interests is not surprising—but in this case, given the high stakes for the economy and the planet, is all the more indefensible."
THE FULL REPORT CAN BE VIEWED HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today released a Democratic staff report titled, “Unsustainable and Unoriginal: How the Republicans Borrowed a Bogus Antitrust Theory to Protect Big Oil." The report highlights what Democratic members and staff have learned about Chairman Jordan's aimless crusade against the use of Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) policies, doing the bidding of dark money groups with ties to former Trump administration officials, the oil and gas industry, and prominent far-right activists and donors through their frivolous antitrust investigation.
In the forward to the Report, Ranking Member Nadler writes, in part:
"This report details how Chairman Jordan copied his entire strategy—his theories about the Sherman Act, his overbroad oversight requests, and his aggressive use of subpoenas—from one Texas-based “think tank.” The Majority did not find evidence of wrongdoing in the 2.5 million pages of documents they collected over the course of this investigation, but that was never the point. Their purpose was to use the Committee as a cudgel, and to bully investors into withdrawing from ESG partnerships. And when they succeeded, this report also shows, they took to social media to gloat about it."
In the executive summary, the Report reads, in part:
"Investor-led ESG initiatives respond to a genuine demand from investors for greater transparency into public companies’ exposure to climate change. Institutional investors, many of them public pension funds with a fiduciary duty to their individual plan holders, need to understand how the corporations they invest in will bear the effects of a changing climate and their preparedness for the coming transition to a climate-resilient economy. Asset managers, in turn, owe a duty to the clients whose money they invest to ensure that public companies have adequately accounted for climate-based risk.
The evidence produced in this investigation undermines, rather than supports, theories of potential antitrust liability for these ESG initiatives. Financial institutions that commit to reduce financing for carbon-emitting activity do so independently and voluntarily. By encouraging companies to provide investors with more information about material risks from climate change, ESG initiatives promote competition.
This investigation is an abuse of the Committee’s oversight authority. The weakness of Chairman Jordan’s case, combined with the broader landscape of right-wing attacks on ESG, leads us to conclude that the Majority launched this investigation with an improper purpose; namely, to impose a cost on investors and financial institutions that take seriously the threat of climate change and to chill legitimate business activity. Chairman Jordan’s weaponization of the Committee in service of far-right interests is not surprising—but in this case, given the high stakes for the economy and the planet, is all the more indefensible."
THE FULL REPORT CAN BE VIEWED HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today released a Democratic staff report titled, “Unsustainable and Unoriginal: How the Republicans Borrowed a Bogus Antitrust Theory to Protect Big Oil." The report highlights what Democratic members and staff have learned about Chairman Jordan's aimless crusade against the use of Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) policies, doing the bidding of dark money groups with ties to former Trump administration officials, the oil and gas industry, and prominent far-right activists and donors through their frivolous antitrust investigation.
In the forward to the Report, Ranking Member Nadler writes, in part:
"This report details how Chairman Jordan copied his entire strategy—his theories about the Sherman Act, his overbroad oversight requests, and his aggressive use of subpoenas—from one Texas-based “think tank.” The Majority did not find evidence of wrongdoing in the 2.5 million pages of documents they collected over the course of this investigation, but that was never the point. Their purpose was to use the Committee as a cudgel, and to bully investors into withdrawing from ESG partnerships. And when they succeeded, this report also shows, they took to social media to gloat about it."
In the executive summary, the Report reads, in part:
"Investor-led ESG initiatives respond to a genuine demand from investors for greater transparency into public companies’ exposure to climate change. Institutional investors, many of them public pension funds with a fiduciary duty to their individual plan holders, need to understand how the corporations they invest in will bear the effects of a changing climate and their preparedness for the coming transition to a climate-resilient economy. Asset managers, in turn, owe a duty to the clients whose money they invest to ensure that public companies have adequately accounted for climate-based risk.
The evidence produced in this investigation undermines, rather than supports, theories of potential antitrust liability for these ESG initiatives. Financial institutions that commit to reduce financing for carbon-emitting activity do so independently and voluntarily. By encouraging companies to provide investors with more information about material risks from climate change, ESG initiatives promote competition.
This investigation is an abuse of the Committee’s oversight authority. The weakness of Chairman Jordan’s case, combined with the broader landscape of right-wing attacks on ESG, leads us to conclude that the Majority launched this investigation with an improper purpose; namely, to impose a cost on investors and financial institutions that take seriously the threat of climate change and to chill legitimate business activity. Chairman Jordan’s weaponization of the Committee in service of far-right interests is not surprising—but in this case, given the high stakes for the economy and the planet, is all the more indefensible."
THE FULL REPORT CAN BE VIEWED HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today released a Democratic staff report titled, “Unsustainable and Unoriginal: How the Republicans Borrowed a Bogus Antitrust Theory to Protect Big Oil." The report highlights what Democratic members and staff have learned about Chairman Jordan's aimless crusade against the use of Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) policies, doing the bidding of dark money groups with ties to former Trump administration officials, the oil and gas industry, and prominent far-right activists and donors through their frivolous antitrust investigation.
In the forward to the Report, Ranking Member Nadler writes, in part:
"This report details how Chairman Jordan copied his entire strategy—his theories about the Sherman Act, his overbroad oversight requests, and his aggressive use of subpoenas—from one Texas-based “think tank.” The Majority did not find evidence of wrongdoing in the 2.5 million pages of documents they collected over the course of this investigation, but that was never the point. Their purpose was to use the Committee as a cudgel, and to bully investors into withdrawing from ESG partnerships. And when they succeeded, this report also shows, they took to social media to gloat about it."
In the executive summary, the Report reads, in part:
"Investor-led ESG initiatives respond to a genuine demand from investors for greater transparency into public companies’ exposure to climate change. Institutional investors, many of them public pension funds with a fiduciary duty to their individual plan holders, need to understand how the corporations they invest in will bear the effects of a changing climate and their preparedness for the coming transition to a climate-resilient economy. Asset managers, in turn, owe a duty to the clients whose money they invest to ensure that public companies have adequately accounted for climate-based risk.
The evidence produced in this investigation undermines, rather than supports, theories of potential antitrust liability for these ESG initiatives. Financial institutions that commit to reduce financing for carbon-emitting activity do so independently and voluntarily. By encouraging companies to provide investors with more information about material risks from climate change, ESG initiatives promote competition.
This investigation is an abuse of the Committee’s oversight authority. The weakness of Chairman Jordan’s case, combined with the broader landscape of right-wing attacks on ESG, leads us to conclude that the Majority launched this investigation with an improper purpose; namely, to impose a cost on investors and financial institutions that take seriously the threat of climate change and to chill legitimate business activity. Chairman Jordan’s weaponization of the Committee in service of far-right interests is not surprising—but in this case, given the high stakes for the economy and the planet, is all the more indefensible."
THE FULL REPORT CAN BE VIEWED HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today released a Democratic staff report titled, “Unsustainable and Unoriginal: How the Republicans Borrowed a Bogus Antitrust Theory to Protect Big Oil." The report highlights what Democratic members and staff have learned about Chairman Jordan's aimless crusade against the use of Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) policies, doing the bidding of dark money groups with ties to former Trump administration officials, the oil and gas industry, and prominent far-right activists and donors through their frivolous antitrust investigation.
In the forward to the Report, Ranking Member Nadler writes, in part:
"This report details how Chairman Jordan copied his entire strategy—his theories about the Sherman Act, his overbroad oversight requests, and his aggressive use of subpoenas—from one Texas-based “think tank.” The Majority did not find evidence of wrongdoing in the 2.5 million pages of documents they collected over the course of this investigation, but that was never the point. Their purpose was to use the Committee as a cudgel, and to bully investors into withdrawing from ESG partnerships. And when they succeeded, this report also shows, they took to social media to gloat about it."
In the executive summary, the Report reads, in part:
"Investor-led ESG initiatives respond to a genuine demand from investors for greater transparency into public companies’ exposure to climate change. Institutional investors, many of them public pension funds with a fiduciary duty to their individual plan holders, need to understand how the corporations they invest in will bear the effects of a changing climate and their preparedness for the coming transition to a climate-resilient economy. Asset managers, in turn, owe a duty to the clients whose money they invest to ensure that public companies have adequately accounted for climate-based risk.
The evidence produced in this investigation undermines, rather than supports, theories of potential antitrust liability for these ESG initiatives. Financial institutions that commit to reduce financing for carbon-emitting activity do so independently and voluntarily. By encouraging companies to provide investors with more information about material risks from climate change, ESG initiatives promote competition.
This investigation is an abuse of the Committee’s oversight authority. The weakness of Chairman Jordan’s case, combined with the broader landscape of right-wing attacks on ESG, leads us to conclude that the Majority launched this investigation with an improper purpose; namely, to impose a cost on investors and financial institutions that take seriously the threat of climate change and to chill legitimate business activity. Chairman Jordan’s weaponization of the Committee in service of far-right interests is not surprising—but in this case, given the high stakes for the economy and the planet, is all the more indefensible."
THE FULL REPORT CAN BE VIEWED HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today released a Democratic staff report titled, “Unsustainable and Unoriginal: How the Republicans Borrowed a Bogus Antitrust Theory to Protect Big Oil." The report highlights what Democratic members and staff have learned about Chairman Jordan's aimless crusade against the use of Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) policies, doing the bidding of dark money groups with ties to former Trump administration officials, the oil and gas industry, and prominent far-right activists and donors through their frivolous antitrust investigation.
In the forward to the Report, Ranking Member Nadler writes, in part:
"This report details how Chairman Jordan copied his entire strategy—his theories about the Sherman Act, his overbroad oversight requests, and his aggressive use of subpoenas—from one Texas-based “think tank.” The Majority did not find evidence of wrongdoing in the 2.5 million pages of documents they collected over the course of this investigation, but that was never the point. Their purpose was to use the Committee as a cudgel, and to bully investors into withdrawing from ESG partnerships. And when they succeeded, this report also shows, they took to social media to gloat about it."
In the executive summary, the Report reads, in part:
"Investor-led ESG initiatives respond to a genuine demand from investors for greater transparency into public companies’ exposure to climate change. Institutional investors, many of them public pension funds with a fiduciary duty to their individual plan holders, need to understand how the corporations they invest in will bear the effects of a changing climate and their preparedness for the coming transition to a climate-resilient economy. Asset managers, in turn, owe a duty to the clients whose money they invest to ensure that public companies have adequately accounted for climate-based risk.
The evidence produced in this investigation undermines, rather than supports, theories of potential antitrust liability for these ESG initiatives. Financial institutions that commit to reduce financing for carbon-emitting activity do so independently and voluntarily. By encouraging companies to provide investors with more information about material risks from climate change, ESG initiatives promote competition.
This investigation is an abuse of the Committee’s oversight authority. The weakness of Chairman Jordan’s case, combined with the broader landscape of right-wing attacks on ESG, leads us to conclude that the Majority launched this investigation with an improper purpose; namely, to impose a cost on investors and financial institutions that take seriously the threat of climate change and to chill legitimate business activity. Chairman Jordan’s weaponization of the Committee in service of far-right interests is not surprising—but in this case, given the high stakes for the economy and the planet, is all the more indefensible."
THE FULL REPORT CAN BE VIEWED HERE.
WASHINGTON, DC – House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today released a Democratic staff report titled, “Unsustainable and Unoriginal: How the Republicans Borrowed a Bogus Antitrust Theory to Protect Big Oil." The report highlights what Democratic members and staff have learned about Chairman Jordan's aimless crusade against the use of Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) policies, doing the bidding of dark money groups with ties to former Trump administration officials, the oil and gas industry, and prominent far-right activists and donors through their frivolous antitrust investigation.
In the forward to the Report, Ranking Member Nadler writes, in part:
"This report details how Chairman Jordan copied his entire strategy—his theories about the Sherman Act, his overbroad oversight requests, and his aggressive use of subpoenas—from one Texas-based “think tank.” The Majority did not find evidence of wrongdoing in the 2.5 million pages of documents they collected over the course of this investigation, but that was never the point. Their purpose was to use the Committee as a cudgel, and to bully investors into withdrawing from ESG partnerships. And when they succeeded, this report also shows, they took to social media to gloat about it."
In the executive summary, the Report reads, in part:
"Investor-led ESG initiatives respond to a genuine demand from investors for greater transparency into public companies’ exposure to climate change. Institutional investors, many of them public pension funds with a fiduciary duty to their individual plan holders, need to understand how the corporations they invest in will bear the effects of a changing climate and their preparedness for the coming transition to a climate-resilient economy. Asset managers, in turn, owe a duty to the clients whose money they invest to ensure that public companies have adequately accounted for climate-based risk.
The evidence produced in this investigation undermines, rather than supports, theories of potential antitrust liability for these ESG initiatives. Financial institutions that commit to reduce financing for carbon-emitting activity do so independently and voluntarily. By encouraging companies to provide investors with more information about material risks from climate change, ESG initiatives promote competition.
This investigation is an abuse of the Committee’s oversight authority. The weakness of Chairman Jordan’s case, combined with the broader landscape of right-wing attacks on ESG, leads us to conclude that the Majority launched this investigation with an improper purpose; namely, to impose a cost on investors and financial institutions that take seriously the threat of climate change and to chill legitimate business activity. Chairman Jordan’s weaponization of the Committee in service of far-right interests is not surprising—but in this case, given the high stakes for the economy and the planet, is all the more indefensible."
THE FULL REPORT CAN BE VIEWED HERE.
