{"id":335040,"date":"2024-06-28T09:09:55","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T07:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335040"},"modified":"2024-06-28T09:09:58","modified_gmt":"2024-06-28T07:09:58","slug":"five-questions-congress-shouldve-asked-the-climate-cartel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=335040","title":{"rendered":"Five Questions Congress Should\u2019ve Asked the Climate Cartel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Matt Cole<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My old employer<\/a> CalPERS just suffered a humiliating defeat in its vote against Exxon\u2019s board of directors. Its losing streak continued last week when the House Judiciary Committee grilled it over the Climate Action 100+ \u201cclimate cartel<\/a>,\u201d which helps pension funds like CalPERS coordinate with asset managers and non-profits to kill fossil fuels. CalPERS is the group\u2019s brains and brawn, founding it and using its $500 billion weight to pressure companies like Exxon to fall in line. Here are five questions I wish Congress had asked it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. What is the investment case that cutting fossil fuel production will increase Exxon shareholders\u2019 returns?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Interim CIO Dan Bienvenue began by asserting \u201cClimate change is an existential risk\u201d and answered questions about CalPERS\u2019 anti-fossil fuel actions by repeating \u201cClimate change is real.\u201d Clearly, CalPERS wants to portray all opposition to its activism as disagreement with science itself. But there\u2019s a long leap between the claim that climate change is real and the conclusion that producing less oil will make an oil company more money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Scientists don\u2019t say climate change is an existential risk: as one review of the research puts it<\/a>, \u201ca century of climate change is about as bad as losing a year of economic growth.\u201d Ending fossil fuel use would cost an energy-starved world far more, especially as AI guzzles<\/a> electricity. The argument that Exxon must destroy its business to save it is political, not financial. Congress could expose that if it pressed the activists for hard evidence instead of ceding them the scientific high ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Would CalPERS ever use its ownership in oil companies to artificially boost its green energy investments?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      If cutting oil and gas production doesn\u2019t make the Exxons and Chevrons of the world more money, who does it benefit? The green energy industry CalPERS recently pledged<\/a> to invest $100 billion in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In early 2023, California released SB 252, which required CalPERS to divest from fossil fuels. The pension opposed<\/a> it, rightly noting that divesting over social goals would hurt its returns but affirming its \u201cstrong commitment to the reduction of GHG emissions.\u201d Half a year later, it made its gigantic climate solutions promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      The Judiciary Committee focused on Climate Action 100+\u2019s war on fossil fuels, but that goes hand-in-hand with its attempt to artificially drive demand to wind and solar energy, which raises its own issues about fiduciary duty and anticompetitive behavior. I asked CalPERS\u2019 PR chief about this conflict of interest in a public exchange<\/a>\u2014no answer. Maybe Congress would have better luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        \n
      1. Where\u2019s that $100 billion in new green investments coming from?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        The math is simple: CalPERS has $500 billion, which is already invested in a variety of assets it presumably believes will maximize risk-adjusted returns. It doesn\u2019t have a spare $100 billion for green investments lying around. Asset allocation is a zero-sum game: if it puts 20% of its portfolio into climate solutions, it has to take it from somewhere else. Where, and at what cost? If divesting from an industry hurts portfolio returns, as CalPERS learned when it missed out on almost $4 billion<\/a> by divesting from tobacco, shifting massive assets from some classes into one politically favored one amounts to the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          \n
        1. If CalPERS\u2019 DEI practices are about ensuring diversity of perspective, why does it only measure diversity of race and gender? Does it believe different races think differently?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

          Bienvenue repeatedly refused to answer direct questions about whether CalPERS ever votes for or against board directors based on their skin color. Doing so would be, well, obviously racist. This should\u2019ve been a softball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          The Committee can press the question by zeroing in on the fact that the \u201ckey highlights\u201d of CalPERS\u2019 DEI investments report<\/a> only highlights diversity related to race, gender, and \u201chistorically underrepresented groups.\u201d It doesn\u2019t identify a single example of voting or engaging to improve diversity of \u201cskill sets\u201d or \u201ccompetencies,\u201d unless you define those through the lens of race or gender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          Does CalPERS govern its portfolio companies on the theory that men are from Mars and women are from Venus? Does it assume that white people and black people have different skill sets and competencies? Its beneficiaries deserve to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \n
          1. If all this ESG investing is about making money, why are your returns so low?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

            Those beneficiaries, current and would-be retirees, are the ones who ultimately pay for all these wasteful experiments in ESG investing. CalPERS has made a habit of underperformance: it reported<\/a> a 5.8% return last year, in-line with its 5-year average. That falls far short of the roughly 7% it needs to hit to meet its future obligations\u2014on its current course, it\u2019s on-track to meet only 72% of its retirees\u2019 funding needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            That chasm was the reality I struggled to defy every day as a CalPERS portfolio manager. The absence of any urgency to close it was why I had to leave to defend our capitalist system elsewhere. ESG investing promises nebulous profits in some far-off future, but my friends and family whose retirements rely on CalPERS need it to perform better today instead of doubling down on its money-losing ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Matt Cole is CEO at <\/em>Strive Asset Management<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            My old employer CalPERS just suffered a humiliating defeat in its vote against Exxon\u2019s board of directors. Its losing streak continued last week when the House Judiciary Committee grilled it over the Climate Action 100+ \u201cclimate cartel,\u201d which helps pension funds like CalPERS coordinate with asset managers and non-profits to kill fossil fuels. CalPERS is the group\u2019s brains and brawn, founding it and using its $500 billion weight to pressure companies like Exxon to fall in line. Here are five questions I wish Congress had asked it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":335042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829439,691829437,691818056,691829441,691829438,691829440,691829442],"class_list":{"0":"post-335040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-calpers","9":"tag-climate-cartel","10":"tag-climate-change","11":"tag-esg-investing","12":"tag-exxons-board-of-directors","13":"tag-green-energy-investments","14":"tag-house-judiciary-committee","16":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/0planet-b.jpg?fit=1960%2C980&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1p9S","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":330897,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=330897","url_meta":{"origin":335040,"position":0},"title":"Business Roundtable Does a 180 on Stakeholder Capitalism in ExxonMobil Lawsuit","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/06\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"On Wednesday, ExxonMobil, the largest energy company in the U.S., will face yet another challenge to its leadership. 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