Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) introduced a bill on Friday that would block a President Joe Biden directive that adds “woke requirements” to financial advisors helping people invest in retirement plans.
“Montanans should not have to pay the price for the whims of wokeness with their hard-earned life savings,” he said, referring to Biden’s 2021 executive order asking the Secretary of Labor to come up with ways to protect retirement plans from “financial risks” related to climate change.
Biden claimed that the financial risks of climate change are “hidden” and that investors needed protection from those risks.
“We know that the climate crisis, whether through rising seas or extreme weather, already presents increasing risks to infrastructure, investments, and businesses,” the administration said in a statement. “Yet, these risks are often hidden.”
Using ESG scores
In reality, Daines said, what the order did was open the door to Wall Street falling in line with ESG, environmental social governance, as a method of elevating radical progressive objectives and shutting down investment in those companies that aren’t considered “woke” enough.
Using ESG scores would penalize fossil fuel companies and other traditional energy companies while further boosting so-called “clean” energy companies like wind and solar. Traditional carmakers would also be tossed aside for electric vehicle companies (except Tesla, I’m guessing).
It’s all part of Biden and progressive Democrats’ push to end fossil fuel use in favor of these less-emitting, but still unreliable, technologies.
This kind of monkeying with the free market would ultimately harm investors by giving a false valuation that is not grounded in reality.
Remember their responsibilities
Not coincidentally, the executive order also stripped regulations put in place by former President Donald Trump that prevented banks from considering ESG scores or other non-financial reasons when making investments.
“Corporate America must remember their responsibility is to their shareholders, not the woke mob – these are financial institutions, not pop-up shops for the radical left,” Daines said.
“The real objective here is to punish politically disfavored industries,” Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said in support of Daines’ bill. “By straying beyond their mandates into the climate arena, financial regulators will pressure banks not to serve politically disfavored industries such as fossil fuel companies.”
The more Biden tampers with the free market, the worse it’s going to get for everyone. Hopefully when we finally get him out of office, there will be something left to rebuild.
