House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Thursday that the Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing movement harms the working class the most.
Scalise spoke previously to Breitbart News about the need to pass H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, a bill that Republicans believe would work to alleviate many of the high energy costs facing the country.
House and Senate Republicans, with the help of Sens. Jon Tester (D-MT) and Joe Manchin (D-WV), passed H.J. Res. 30, a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that would nullify Biden’s ESG rule or the Department of Labor’s “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights” rule.
The bill has been presented to the president, and Biden has vowed to veto the bill, although he has yet to do so.
ESG is the latest vector through which the federal government, Wall Street asset managers, and activist investors push private companies to adopt leftist positions such as combatting climate change, advocating racial justice, and diversity requirements.
Scalise said Biden has launched an “all-out attack on American energy” since he first became president, which includes canceling the Keystone XL pipeline and blocking more permits for oil and gas leasing.
Scalise said Biden “unleashed the weight of every federal agency against energy producers through these radical programs like ESG, where you’re getting the financial regulators to try to discourage people from loaning money to energy projects.”
The Louisiana conservative said that hurts the working class that is just trying to make ends meet.
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“If you’re a worker, a blue-collar worker who just wants to retire and enjoy the highest yield from your 401(k) so that you can have the best retirement possible, then you should be able to have confidence that when you’re investing your retirement funds that the government is helping encourage you to get the highest rate of return, not the lowest rate of return,” Scalise explained. “And ESG hurts blue-collar workers the hardest because it takes money out of their retirement accounts.”
The Biden administration has also pushed ESG at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by proposing a rule that would require companies to disclose the alleged effects of extreme weather and climate change. The Wall Street Journal reported that the agency might water down the requirements after significant backlash.
Scalise said that House Republicans will continue to investigate federal agencies and departments that harm Americans by increasing energy prices.
He said, “We’re gonna be investigating all of these policies that are hurting families, and making it harder to make things in America. Because our country runs on energy. And, if we’re not making it here in America, we just need to go get it from other countries. And some of those countries don’t like us. Most of them don’t have the good environmental standards we already have. So why would you not want to be making more energy in America? And again, we’re going to give the Senate and the president the opportunity to join us when we pass the Lower Energy Costs Act through the House.”
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.