“Register for ESG”: More Details on Securities & Exchange Commission Activist Role in “Whole Government” Promoting ESG, “Climate Risk Disclosure”

WEB EDITOR

Indispensable Government Transparency Group Energy Policy Advocates provided GAO with a review of filing products from FOIA’s litigation with the Securities & Exchange Commission, including specifically: from the calendars of President Gary Gensler and then Commissioner Allison Herren Lee.

Between the near obsession with promoting the “ESG” and “Climate Risk Disclosure” agendas these programs reveal, and the emerging information about an example of a revolving door that is clearly ostentatious even by Washington’s standards, the GAO feels bold to say that a Securities & Exchange Commission investigation seems disproportionately focused on the CRD and ESG, and agenda execution This is guaranteed.

Factors include:

• calendar for President Gary Gensler and then-Commissioner Allison Herren Lee represents a disproportionate investment of time and attention in the CRD and ESG, which is difficult on the surface but is of course also said to demonstrate the Commission leadership’s distraction on marketing issues. major emerging financial markets (e.g. FTX/Alameda)
• These are not publicly available calendars, but the ones that Energy Policy Advocates had to sue for. These usually contain details removed from public versions
• The SEC heavily edited these calendars, which are the subject of ongoing litigation. Also, thanks to the same team, the SEC will soon have to release the Biden transition team’s plan, related filings, and all Biden campaign communications over a relevant period of time (possibly. evidence of politicization)
• remarkable, the main sponsor of the CRD/ESG campaign is a foreign “ESG investor”, Sir Christopher Hohn. As a GAO article this past summer pointed out, Hohn has very close ties to Chinese officials, but what’s even more disturbing is that he is also sponsoring the “gas litigation” campaign. climate” added, with tens of millions of dollars (although denying it has anything to do with US climate). litigation, track record of funds running through a dubious group in the Netherlands)
• The SEC’s position is that they have to impose an ESG, such as a CRD rule, because investors demand it. This is true so far (see Hohn, Christopher, BlackRock, et al.), if not as the SEC implies. For more details see GAO’s comment here. However, given information developed through years of open-profile pursuits, this leaves no doubt about the political and activist roots of CRD (standing by the AG Office of New York, Ceres, BlackRock, and Rockefeller’s compulsory interest. head) and pre-ruler, senior (visibility) combination With the Biden White House Climate Office, this statement seems to make sense
• The calendar indicates that coordination with the White House begins in May and June 2021 at the Gensler level, carried out by his staff in September and December 2021.
• And now we have a clear example of a revolving door, ostentatious even by Washington standards

On the second issue, highlighting possible conflicts and issues that unduly affect the climate risk disclosure rule, “Kristina Wyatt leave the SEC [in February 2022] joins Persefoni, a climate management and accounting platform, as deputy general counsel and senior vice president for global regulatory climate disclosure. Wyatt is serving as senior climate and ESG advisor to the director of the Group Finance Division at the SEC – she is immersed in the processes and decision-making that underpin the proposed ruling. this export.”

The public comment book on the CRD rule shows that Persefoni, a little-known but well-funded startup, held a disproportionate number of meetings with SEC staff compared with other advocates. . It seems very likely that Persefoni is pushing his method for claiming the cost of climate rules, as the SEC has been unable to provide any method or citation for low CRD compliance cost estimates and is the only number that comes close to the SEC estimate. comes from a survey co-conducted by Ceres, ERM and Persefoni.

The sheer volume of time senior staff spend exclusively on the issue, including flirting with activists, is worrisome. That all this is in pursuit of a political agenda item that investors demand, yes – ideologically active investors, including clear rent seekers – It’s a completely different story.

Each of these AHL items To be different, btw

Energy Policy Advocates’ FOIA lawsuit with the SEC continues on several fronts – an issue that revealed an alarming four-fold fire at Biden’s White House as the SEC moved over the request. FOIA’s exchange of correspondence, “Importance: High,” to which the White House replied, “Has this product been flagged for OMB, CEQ, and WH Military Office?”. Expect more calendars, other documents, and eventually the elimination of certain deals in the coming weeks and months. The GAO will keep you up to date with these important developments and important issues.