Anti-anti-ESG strikes back

Sep 09, 2022 View in browser   By Debra Kahn, Jordan Wolman and Marcia Brown THE WEEK THAT WAS Mike Bloomberg has had it with the anti-ESG rhetoric. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo E IS FOR ENOUGH — This was the week the financial world decided to return fire in response to Republicans' assault on ESG investing. The common theme: They just don't get it, and they're stupid. Mike Bloomberg , the billionaire chair of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures: "Critics call it 'woke capitalism.' There's just one problem: They don't seem to understand capitalism. And flogging ESG is not only a terrible economic mistake. It will be a political loser, too." Matthew Winkler, a columnist with Bloomberg's financial data and news outlet, chimed in , arguing that Ron DeSantis and others are fighting a strategy proven to reward investors and leaving people to wonder "why the Ivy League-educated governor of Florida is proud to be ignorant." Less risky and higher returns — what's not to like? BlackRock Inc., the prime target of GOP attacks, restated its case on Wednesday against 19 attorneys general who allege the world's biggest money manager is forgoing the best possible return in favor of reaching climate goals: "It is our duty to provide clients with our perspective on matters that can affect asset prices and to help them navigate constantly evolving industries and markets. Our commitment to our clients' financial interests is unwavering and undivided." Will the pushback to the pushback change anything? Probably not, as Winkler says: "Getting everyone's attention makes perfect political sense, if only to bolster your position as the preferred Republican successor to Donald Trump." More evidence that this is more sound than fury: Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who specifically urged the inclusion of BlackRock last year in the list of firms for state pension funds to boycott, owned shares in BlackRock and three of its mutual funds at the time, Texas Monthly reports. WHAT'S WORKING DEMAND RESPONSE'S DAY IN THE SUN — The hero of California's narrowly avoided rolling blackouts this week was...you and me! Residents responded to public- and private-sector appeals to cut their electricity consumption as temperatures rose above 110 degrees across much of Northern California. Even though electricity demand was more than 10 percent higher than it was during the 2020 heat wave, the grid avoided the outages that swept the state for two nights that August. One of the middlemen encouraging conservation was the Oakland-based company OhmConnect, which offers customers incentives to reduce electricity use when supplies are tight and sells the reductions on the open market (Disclosure: Debra is a user of OhmConnect and is proud to report she cut her usage on Tuesday 44 percent below average). OhmConnect threw its consumer testing protocols to the wind this week and offered Starbucks and Amazon cards to anyone who could cut usage by 90 percent, spending about $750,000 on Tuesday alone. It managed peak reductions of about 200 megawatts, or 0.4 percent of the state's peak load. (The state also sent an unprecedented Amber Alert-style text message to all residents' cell phones, which it credited with another 2,000 MW of reductions.) It was a massive short-term win, but OhmConnect doesn't think calling for cuts six days in a row is a long-term solution. "There's no question that asking people to take emergency reduction actions over and over again is no way to run a grid, is not sustainable," CEO Cisco DeVries said. "And no matter what you say, or incentives you put in place, there is a place in which too much is too much. And I think we're playing with that right now."   A WOMEN RULE CONVERSATION ON LEADING FROM THE GROUND UP: Join POLITICO's Women Rule on Sept. 15 for conversations focused on creating and leading sustainable, healthy and inclusive communities. The program will feature a Member Exchange panel followed by a keynote discussion exploring the most pressing issues facing women in their communities and women in leadership roles who are best positioned to solve these problems. REGISTER HERE.     SUSTAINABLE FINANCE CLIMATE CRUNCHES — U.S. banks are going to want to prepare for a workout — climate change style. Federal Reserve regulatory czar Michael Barr on Wednesday said the central bank next year will launch a pilot exercise requiring banks to game out how climate change might affect their long-term finances. He called the exercise "microprudential," in that it deals with risks to specific institutions rather than assessing risks to the banking system as a whole. Elsewhere on Wednesday, acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu also talked about the benefit of so-called scenario analysis, where big banks would plan how they would manage climate risks using hypothetical future scenarios. Read more from Victoria Guida here. BUILDING BLOCKS Minneapolis wants hometown retail giant Target and other big companies to shift to net zero shipping by 2030. | Getty Images TARGET PRACTICE — The Minneapolis city council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday calling on the country's biggest importing companies to transition to zero-emission goods movement via ships by 2030. Why is Minneapolis taking on the shipping industry? It's the headquarters of Target Corp., which the resolution named alongside 14 other companies, including Walmart Inc., Home Depot Inc., IKEA, Amazon.com Inc. and Nike Inc. The environmental group Pacific Environment, which is behind the resolution, said it had found success pushing IKEA and Amazon to commit to only purchasing zero-emissions vessels by 2040. "We're hoping with all the pressure we're putting on Target that they'll come around soon," said Dawny'all Heydari, Pacific Environment's Ship It Zero campaign lead. A Target spokesperson pointed to the company's goal of becoming a "net zero enterprise" by 2040 across its operations and supply chain, including reducing its shipping carbon footprint. WASHINGTON WATCH CAFO PLAY — Environmental groups are warning that Big Ag may be trying to make an end run around the Biden administration's potential air rules. More than 100 groups sent a letter Thursday urging senators to oppose the Livestock Regulatory Protection Act, a bill Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) proposed last year to bar EPA from issuing permits related to livestock emissions under the Clean Air Act. The groups are worried that Thune might be trying to get concentrated animal feeding operations exempted from aspects of the Clean Air Act, as similar language in a current appropriations rider would do. He cited EPA's "onerous regulations and costly permit fees on animal emissions" in an Environment and Public Works Committee hearing Wednesday. "Hamstringing EPA from addressing emissions from this sector is the exact opposite of what the U.S. should be doing in the narrow window we have left to avert the worst impacts of climate change," the letter says. YOU TELL US Happy Friday! Would you be willing to turn off your fridge for four hours for a $50 gift card? Let us know. Team Sustainability is editor Greg Mott, deputy editor Debra Kahn, and reporter Jordan Wolman. Reach us at gmott@politico.com, dkahn@politico.com and jwolman@politico.com. Want more? You can have it. Sign up for the Long Game. Four days a week and still free. That's sustainability! WHAT WE'RE CLICKING — Prince Charles is a king on climate, Sara Schonhardt reports for POLITICO's E&E News. His Aston Martin runs on bioethanol made from wine and cheese byproducts. — Rivian's first international expansion is a deal with Mercedes to manufacture delivery vehicles. — Mitsubishi is planning to introduce modular carbon-capture systems next year that can capture up to 200 metric tons per day.   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.       Follow us on Twitter Debra Kahn @debra_kahn Greg Mott @gwmott Jordan Wolman @jordanwolman   Follow us

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