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| | | | |  | | By Debra Kahn, Jordan Wolman and Allison Prang | | | | |  Kansas AG Kris Kobach is looking askance at his own group's investments. | Reed Hoffmann/AP Photo | FIRST THEY CAME FOR BLACKROCK — They've come for asset managers and for the Chamber of Commerce. Now Republicans are coming for their own...nonprofit organizations? Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach sent the National Association of Attorneys General a letter last week asking for it to disclose its investments and financial positions in order to root out "corrosive 'ESG' practices of investment firms and other players in the financial industry," Jordan reports. NAAG has some $220 million in assets under management — pretty well-capitalized for a "nonpartisan national forum for America's state and territory attorneys general." Its membership currently tilts Republican, with 29 to Democrats' 25 (including D.C. and U.S. territories). The group seems about as taken aback as the other targets of Republicans' anti-ESG rage have been. It does have investments with some of those firms, including BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard, but “[t]he investment objective is to maximize returns within an acceptable level of risk, to maintain the real corpus value of the fund, and to provide an appropriate level of spending,” Brian Kane, NAAG's executive director, wrote in a Tuesday email to members that Jordan also obtained. NAAG is studiously nonpartisan and bipartisan, switching off presidents between parties every year. It's "one of the few remaining spaces where bipartisan collaboration still thrives," "Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat who serves as the chair of NAAG's finance committee, said in a statement. Kobach struck an ominous tone: "[W]hile I find merit in some of the criticisms my colleagues have launched at the organization recently, I’m convinced that the people of our states are better served by reforming NAAG rather than abandoning it." Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador (R) piled on with a letter of his own on Tuesday, writing that he shares his colleagues’ “serious concern” about the possibility of public money, held by NAAG, “being invested in ESG-oriented funds.” We'll see what happens after the Republican Attorneys General Association has its winter meeting in New Orleans later this month.
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA’S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | SHELL GAME — Should natural gas be considered renewable energy? That’s one of the issues raised by the environmental nonprofit Global Witness in a complaint the organization filed with the SEC against Shell PLC. Global Witness is asking the regulator to investigate Shell's financial disclosures, claiming that the oil giant is misleading investors by classifying some fossil fuel energy sources as renewable. The group said it “found the widespread use of fossil gas across [Shell’s] proclaimed renewable spending, including in integrated power, gas marketing and trading, hydrogen, and carbon capture and storage.” The company pushed back. “We’re confident Shell’s financial disclosures are fully compliant with all SEC and other reporting requirements,” a spokesperson for the company said in an emailed statement. The SEC declined to comment. Read more from Allison here. The British oil heavyweight meanwhile reported its latest financial results on Thursday, logging a record $39.9 billion in profit for 2022, helped by increased oil and gas prices,Reuters reports.
| | | BIPARTISANSHIP LIVES — Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) are discussing a way forward for last year's stalled permitting reform effort, Emma Dumain, Kelsey Brugger, Jeremy Dillon report for POLITICO's E&E News. "Both sides know that we need it," Manchin said. "Everyone has come to agreement that you got to have permitting. Let’s take the politics out of it, and do what’s doable.” Democrats are wary, but Republicans are optimistic. Westerman said he thinks Democrats will want to play ball, if for no other reason than to speed up the “green infrastructure projects they approved all that money for” as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. “There are going to be some reasonable Democrats who would want to get on board," he said. Also getting bipartisan interest: Climate provisions in the farm bill, as Adam Aton reports for POLITICO's E&E News. Western drought, greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and the IRA's allocation of about $20 billion of climate money to preexisting farm bill programs are all fueling a brewing tug-of-war. “The farm bill is probably going to be the piece of legislation in the next two years with the biggest impact on the climate and the environment,” said Peter Lehner, managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Sustainable Food and Farming Program. House Agriculture Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) has promised to “make sure the Farm Bill doesn’t become the climate bill.” But green groups are optimistic about Republicans' willingness to consider climate, as long as the programs are voluntary. “It is a sea change that Democrats and Republicans are both talking about climate,” said Scott Faber, vice president of government affairs for the Environmental Working Group, who has worked on five previous farm bills. “Where there’s conflict is not about whether USDA should help farmers reduce emissions, but the extent to which [they do] and how we provide the resources.”
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| | | — The SEC is considering weakening its climate-disclosure rules in response to wide-ranging pushback, the WSJ reports. — The carbon footprint from autonomous vehicles' computing needs could swamp their environmental benefits, an MIT study finds. — The Economist is respectfully skeptical of Biden's grand, green ambitions.
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