Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t Dr. Willie Soon; Authors David Blood and Al Gore, writing in the WSJ as guests, are astonished some companies and politicians are resisting their push for climate and sustainable development disclosures. But there is a hidden catch in their push.
ESG Investing Is Consistent With Fiduciary Duty
It’s not an end in itself. It’s simply an analytical tool that investors would be smart to make use of.
By Al Gore and David Blood
Nov. 8, 2022 630 pm ETNo matter your investment strategy, timely access to accurate and comprehensive information is critical. Transparency enables investors to make informed decisions with a greater understanding of the risks and opportunities facing a company. Yet incredibly, some American politicians are now trying to pass laws to prevent investors from taking highly relevant information into account.
Why? Is the information they seek to ban inconvenient?
…
Consider two examples. If a company is at risk of having significant liabilities for its past practice of dumping toxic chemicals into a river, don’t investors need to know that? Or how about if a company is building gas-fired power plants or new oil pipelines that, as governments tighten their climate targets, may have to be shut down decades before their projected useful lifetimes expire. Isn’t that relevant information?
…
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/sustainable-investing-is-consistent-with-fiduciary-duty-esg-capitalism-emissions-co2-business-costs-growth-tool-market-value-rules-11667879249
What is that catch I mentioned? The problem is Al Gore’s push is political. Those climate targets haven’t been tightened yet, and might never be tightened – but requiring companies to include ESG considerations in their financial decisions would force them to behave as if that tightening of climate regulations had already occurred.
There is nothing inevitable about the changes Al Gore claims will occur in the future.
Worse, pressure for companies to consider climate goals could actually put corporate finances in jeopardy. For example, back in June, Green Party German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck announced Germany would be restarting their coal plants, due to their desperate energy shortages – caused by forcing companies to behave as if the green energy revolution was inevitable.
The same thing could happen to the USA, if Al Gore and his friends get their way.
I have no problem with companies publishing climate information voluntarily, or inviting an audit from Santa Claus and the tooth fairy if they think that will improve their business prospects. But financial disclosures must remain focussed on the here and now, not on Al Gore’s fantasies about what might happen in the future – otherwise the US national economy could end up like train wreck Europe.
Good posting, Eric, h/t Willie Soon. The first time I was CEO of publicly traded stock company I was sent a review of the relevant laws to read. This can be summarized as “maximize shareholder wealth while not breaking any laws”. The ESG idea was extorsion, not science and not good business conduct. We should remember, extorsion often pays off for one side.
Unfortunately, some fund managers think that it is their job to “save the planet” and are making very poor investment choices as a result. The sole function of investment managers is to maximise returns for their investors. Any fund manager who doesn’t work to do that is definitely breaching their fiduciary duty to their investors.
According to Merriam Webster:
“ESG idea was extorsion“?
What is rotating? And what fixed point is it rotating around?
Adam Smith is spinning in his grave as authoritarians try to take control of the world economy and run it into the ground!
A diversion which adds nothing to the discussion – “extorsion” will be understood to mean “extortion” by English speakers, and will not be noticed as an incorrect English spelling by speakers of Romanic languages where it would be a correct translation of the word. Trivial spelling mistakes on an internet forum used by an international audience including many non-native English speakers are to be expected, and only a pedant would raise it as an issue.
My bad, you’re right. You’re also a jackwagon.
Ron Long, I had to look up the word “jackwagon” because I’m from the east side of the pond. ATheoK is a valued commenter here (at least, I value him). And you were the one that made the spelling error in the first place. “My bad” is not a sufficient apology to him. I am becoming concerned that the recent restriction on who may comment at WUWT may have actually had negative effects on politeness on this site.
Neil Lock, if you were concerned about politeness you would not agree with ATheoK.
“My bad” is not an apology. It’s an acknowledgement that he made a spelling error.
Making a big fuss over a minor spelling error, that confused nobody, is not exactly polite behavior.
A great ado about nothing .
All this fuss over a typo…
Can anyone find wind data supporting a “hurricane” strength Nicole (of 74 or more mph)?
No.
A powerful storm, but disorganized before landfall.
Powerful yes, and very large in size (thanks to a large and strong anticyclone to the north), but still no one can identify winds supporting “hurricane” strength.
But, but but… it has NAME!
Maybe a better name would be Hurricane Agenda, unless of course someone can actually find DATA to verify the claim.
Over in the UK, the farcical Met Office has been naming “storms” for a number of years, as we do not get the hurricanes they appear to desire. They wouldn’t use so many letters if they named heatwaves instead.
Well, Paul, here in South London, inside the M25,we had Dark Cloud Kathleen this lunchtime, followed by Gust Norman-Elwyn, which reached 28 mph. For several seconds.
Ain’t life grand?
Auto
It’s only been in the last decade or so that they started naming tropical storms.
Now they are naming winter cold fronts here in the U.S.! Probably thanks largely to the Weather Porn Channel.
And soon – ensuring the storms are give correct pronouns –
they / them / he / him / she / her / to-be-advised.
I’m really concerned about anyone who believes they can determine the sexual orientation of clouds.
It’s easier to determine sexual orientation if you’re young… or perverted.
I saw it named as a “sub-tropical storm” – I thought we didn’t name until at least tropical storm?
Are they changing the naming conventions so they can claim “there are more named storms than ever”?
Correct. They changing the rules … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzAQ6CIPqDI
Between Cuba and Florida, the Tropic of Cancer (23° 27′ N) is about 22 miles north of Havanna. Anything north of this line is considered less than tropical, or subtropical. Nicole began at about 27.7°N (as far as I can tell), so it was never a “tropical” storm.
I’ll say this again. The wind strength given in advisories are based on measurements made by aircraft over the water. Once the winds begin to blow onshore, friction begins to reduce the wind speed. Rarely do on land stations measure winds equal to what the winds were blowing over the ocean. It’s not a conspiracy, it’s physics.
Ok then, please identify the wind data showing hurricane force wind? Where is that measurement you speak of? I did not limit my request to shoreline data, plus I am very familiar with Recce dropsonde data since I write programs to analyze that data (www.raob.com). So I’ll say this again … where is the data? Without hurricane data, there is no hurricane.
There are several Air Force Hurricane Hunter eye fix reports with winds above hurricane force. Here is a link to just one, but you can look at reports before and after this too
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/recon/2022/REPNT2/REPNT2-KBIX.202211100227.txt
MAX FL WIND 80 KT 044 / 24 NM 00:06:00Z
Thanks for the info. Knowledge of FL Wind is good, but it’s not surface. The “H” and “L” line items are Max Surface Winds on “inbound” and “outbound” legs. The line item “H. 55kt” converts to 63 mph surface wind.
I found a table of recco data that summarizes the highest SFMR (surface) winds for flights into Nicole.Wind over 64 kt is hurricane-force.
Thanks for that table of wind data. That SFMR data is radar derived and has been shown to be calibrated on the high side, but in this case the winds are high enough to call Nicole a Cat 1. Maybe someone will later find a conventional surface based wind obs for more confirmation.
Don’t they use satellites to estimate wind speeds (from the movement of cloud tops) when the storms are too far out for the storm chasers?
You can’t see surface layer clouds under the thick hurricane canopy, which is where the max winds are found — near the eyewall.
I am not going to try to find the techniques the weather services use to determine wind speed, but I think it involves measurements from above as the disturbance moves over the ocean surface. These methods continue at and after the storm moves on to land. If they switch from a method that works over an un-instrumented ocean to instruments on land a few feet above the surface, there would be a discontinuity to deal with. You should investigate this if you believe it important and believe it to be inappropriate.
This issue is similar to the concept of “climate normals.” People reading about AGW and similar topics should know the numbers do not express climate nor normality. The concept is defined and used such that everyone should understand what is going on.
Neither of these things should cause aggravation.
In tennis, love is a word that represents a score of zero. This sounds silly, but somehow the game goes on.
To analogize, Gore’s mouth is like a sewer that leaks, far too often.
Scissor, it continues to amaze me how failed politicians like Albert Arnold Gore can continue to remain in some peoples’ limelight even decades after they failed…only to fail and fail again.
Regards,
Bob
Right on, Scissor and Bob, and remember his ex-wife referred to him as the “Sex Poodle”. What the hell is that?
Thanks, Ron. That made me laugh. WOOF!
Regards,
Bob
I, for one, really don’t want to know!
Let it be their secret.
Who knows, but I hate to think where the batteries go.
Hmmmm, I thought that was John “Puny Pickle” Kerry.
Maybe he had a habit of humping everybody’s leg. How about pissing on everybody’s leg and saying it was a hurricane.
Crap! Using Word Press to assure Tony and company that I’m real resulted in using a very old handle. I’ll see if I can fix it.
In Florida, Charlie Crist has now lost campaigns for governor 3 times. Once as a Republican, once as an independent and now as a Democrat.
Beto O’Rourke from Texas and Abrams of Georgia, have each lost twice and are both famous and most of their fame and fortune comes from being well known losers.
Do you suppose they will also end up on some AGW panel like Gore and Lurch?
In the old days they would have ended up on Hollywood Squares.
Wasn’t Abrams just re-elected?
Bob,
The Goracle is just another of the long list of useful idiots, sock puppets and mouth pieces used by the ruling elite to present their “solutions” to the problems they have created. Those that are particularly effective at scaring children and the weak-minded will be endlessly propped up and paid despite years or even decades of failed prognostications!
Sex Poodle!!? How am I going to unsee that!? Aaaaaah!!
Regarding leaks … did the NHC leak that Nicole attained hurricane strength, or was it wishful thinking? So far no one can identify actual reported sustained surface winds of 74 or more mph.
The allegation is that it reached hurricane strength just after crossing Grand Bahama a bit to the East of Freeport. That seems implausible, but that is where any ground based measurement would be. It is claimed for no higher than the bare minimum 75mph.
The Weather Channel kept promising that Nicole was to become a hurricane, just like Al Gore promised the sea ice would melt by 2013. A promise is not data. No one can yet identify valid data indicating sustained surface winds of 74 or more mph.
The B & G analogy to a company that dumped toxic waste in the past is just stupid. Actual past bad behavior is way different that potential future risk based on pure speculation. And I’m pretty sure no company that committed a crime in the past has ever disclosed the details in their prospectus. They do have to disclose potential liability if they are currently under indictment, but that’s something that is already in the public record.
Dumping toxic waste was illegal at the time it happened.
CO2 is neither toxic nor is it waste.
(Yes I know that in large enough quantities CO2 can kill you. In large enough volumes, everything is toxic.)
The biggest climate change related threat faced by US corporations is unjustified government actions based on a false “crisis”.
Blood and Gore
How very appropriately named they are
Red in tooth and claw
Hmmmm, well two can play at their game. What about the risk that the “climate change” fraud finally collapses, leaving “green” investments high and dry and power companies who have gone all-in on say offshore wind left holding the bag? What about the risk of all the environmental damages done by so-called renewables, and removal and abatement of thousands of hideous, oil-leaking bird-choppers and countless acres of solar panels? And so on.
There is legal action currently going on with the offshore project in Virginia where the potential cost pf failure was to be slipped to the unknowing customers.
It sounds like extortion to me. Nice company you have there. It would be too bad if somebody were to amass enough power and be able to shut you down by diktat. Now send me money or at least support my ability to amass that power.
Thanks
Al
Go Sri Lanka, the country of an unblemished ESG score.
And government imposed starvation.
Bingo!
Sri Lanka is the ESG poster child of what happens if you mindlessly transition to
a supposed environmental utopia.
Venezuela is the Socialism poster child of what happens when a government runs out of “other people’s money” [ie, crash the private sector].
These are real-world examples of how equity works: make everyone poor, and hungry.
Trillions of dollars in redistributive change to flatline. Clever. #NoEnvy, really.
“ If a company is at risk of having significant liabilities for its past practice of dumping toxic chemicals into a river, don’t investors need to know that?” FAIL! This example is a lie.
At least for the U.S., general accounting standards already require pollution liability disclosures. Are Blood and Gore that stupid? Of course they are. Neither has probably ever actually run a business. In the U.S., even governmental entities are required to make annual pollution liability disclosures under GASB 49. (I know. I work in state higher education, and I have to report every summer)
Some non-profit or even a state attorney general should file a lawsuit against Blood and Gore requiring them to move ALL of their investments into ONLY ESG participants to demonstrate that what they are pushing with their ESG requirements is NOT some sort of PONZI scheme where their Green cronies all benefit from forcing funds managers to invest in Green Scam projects and funds while REALISTS go broke having their money poured down the drain rather than invested in FINANCIALLY SOUND investments as required by LAW and by the by-laws of every company that hasn’t taken the GREEN pill or drunk the Jim Jones GREEN Kool Aid.
At some point, Al Gore will discover that people sitting in the dark and cold aren’t investing at all. Isn’t that inconvenient relevant information?
Hmm, doubt that he will be sitting in the dark and cold!
Eric,
I may be mistaken, but I believe that in the long run we need to push for the designation of Climastrology and the other cultural Marxist cults as religions! Many of our current problems arise from decades of allowing children in our schools and universities to be proselytized to by religious zealots who are trying to frighten them into activism.
If one wishes to practice racism, bigotry and total ignorance of science by following these failing belief systems that is an individual choice; but religious teachings should no more be allowed in the boardroom than they are, supposedly, in the classroom!
Being a pirate is all fun and games ’til somebody loses a fortune.