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2022-06-10 -Great Cultural Revolution
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Fossil Fuel Companies Being Squeezed Out Say States
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[ET] - accessible, thanks to Mullah Richard.
State treasurers spoke out against the imposition of environmental, social and governance (ESG) scoring on public money in a June 8 press conference, with one official comparing it to the social justice-driven push for universal homeownership that helped trigger the Great Recession.
 In contrast to the "invisible hand"—Adam Smith’s metaphor for the operation of the free market—Oaks sees ESG as an "invisible fist."
[Utah State Treasurer] Oaks was one signatory to an April 21 letter from Utah’s governor, senators, congressional representatives and other public officials in response to S&P Global’s issuance of ESG ratings for US states and territories.
"Considering recent global events, the current economic situation in the United States, and the unreliability and inherently political nature of ESG factors in investment decisions, we view this newfound focus on ESG as politicizing the ratings process.
"It is deeply counterproductive, misleading, potentially damaging to the entities being rated, and possibly illegal," Oaks and his colleagues argued in that letter.
Idaho officials sent a similar letter to S&P Global on May 18. They echoed the Utah letter’s concerns with the firm’s scoring of American energy companies relative to some of their foreign counterparts.
China’s state-owned Sinopec, for example, earned a 41 from S&P Global. ExxonMobil Corporation, by contrast, received a 36, while Chevron Corporation received a 39.
Maybe China's more 'woke'.
Sinopec’s sub-scores on both "social" and "governance and economic" factors were well above the industry mean.
Of course - they pay more.
Another speaker at the June 8 press conference, West Virginia’s Treasurer Riley Moore, made headlines in January when the state divested from Blackrock over its ESG practices.
"In West Virginia, we’re an energy state. We produce coal, gas, and oil—and this ESG movement in its current form is really an existential threat to our jobs, our economy, and our tax revenue," Moore told reporters.
A law passed by the West Virginia Senate on March 12 will exclude financial institutions from competitive bidding with the state if they are boycotting fossil fuel companies.
He agreed that the economy could be facing an ESG bubble. Moore argued coal prices could be an indicator—the international benchmark for a tonne of coal has shot up from less than $50 in September 2020 to roughly $400 today.
Remind me - how much electricity for summertime A/C comes from coal?
"The coal producers are booked out through 2023. They can’t produce any more than they are right now," he added.
Well, if they could get leases and permits, they might.
Left-wing activists and financiers have celebrated the movement of investments from the hydrocarbon sector, arguing that pressure in that direction is both ethically and financially sound.
 "Getting lenders to choke off money to fossil fuel companies is the next needed move for the industry to address the material risks that the coal, oil and gas industry faces," said Green Century Capital Management’s Leslie Samuelrich, as quoted in a February 2021 CNBC article.
"Fossil fuel mining, exploration, and extraction all are capital intensive activities that demand constant access to capital. If capital costs rise or the supply of capital is reduced, projects can become uneconomical and fossil fuel companies can see their valuations fall," wrote David Carlin in a February 2021 article for Forbes, "The Case for Fossil Fuel Divestment."
He argued that coal, oil, and natural gas companies may face "a grim financial future" if their reserves remain untapped as a result of political or financial pressure, suggesting that divestment advocates are "making a savvy financial decision."
Not so good for the energy consumer. 
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Posted by Bobby 2022-06-10 00:00||
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Posted by Pholing Crererong6639 2022-06-10 07:27||
2022-06-10 07:27||
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Posted by Dale 2022-06-10 07:29||
2022-06-10 07:29||
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