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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio is continuing his war on private companies.
Here on the ReidOut Blog, I’ve written a fair amount about Rep. Jordan and his use of the Judiciary Committee to pressure businesses to either invest their money in conservatives or craft policies that benefit conservatives. From trying to pressure social media companies not to curtail hate speech or propaganda, to trying to pressure advertisers to spend more money on conservative media platforms, Jordan has led a right-wing crackdown on industrial independence — which is blatantly hypocritical behavior coming from the purported party of “free enterprise.”
And Jordan isn’t finished.
On Tuesday, he and Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie sent letters demanding information from more than 100 investment companies that form a coalition known as Climate Action 100+. It's a group of investment firms that work to “ensure the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take appropriate action on climate change in order to mitigate financial risk and to maximize the long-term value of assets.” Basically, they make sure that companies they’re investing in abide by a set of climate-conscious guidelines. This kind of investment — known as environmental, social and governance (or ESG) investment — is a way for corporate financiers to prioritize issues important to them as they dole out money. And Republicans have tried their damnedest to demonize it and root it out.
For example, the X account for GOP members of the House Judiciary Committee announced Jordan and Massie’s probe of the more than 100 firms by referring to their coalition as a “Woke ESG Cartel.”
Jordan and Massie’s letter alleges “the Committee has uncovered evidence that financial institutions are colluding with climate activists through initiatives like Climate Action 100+ to adopt left-wing environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-related goals, potentially in violation of U.S. antitrust law.” It also demands each company turn over all documents related to their membership in Climate Action 100+, and answers to questions about how each firm encourages companies to comply with their climate goals.
So Jordan’s committee is essentially putting pressure on private companies for their work to curb climate change, and using a dubious report his committee released in June, which includes the “collusion” accusations, as a pretense to justify his meddling.
The letter even references organizations that may have been scared into withdrawing from the climate-conscious coalition of investment firms.
It says:
Notably, since the beginning of the Committee’s investigation, several of the world’s largest asset managers — including BlackRock, State Street Global Advisors, J.P. Morgan, PIMCO, and Invesco — have publicly withdrawn from Climate Action 100+. In total, “about a dozen” investor signatories have pulled out of Climate Action 100+ over the past six months.
To me, this sounded like thinly veiled threats of a mafioso. Essentially: “These companies knew what was good for ‘em, and and avoided our wrath.”
To be sure, some of the companies that withdrew from Climate Change Action 100+ cited other reasons for pulling out of the coalition. But the committee's actions could very well have caused a chilling effect, more broadly.
However you spin it, though, what we’re seeing here is yet another example of the type of government shakedown tactics voters can expect to be completely unleashed if Donald Trump and the Republican Party wield full control of Washington after November’s election.