Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines could also be called to testify. Why? Because Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian described Georgia’s Voting Rights Act of 2021, which critics say will make it harder for minorities to vote, as “unacceptable” of” and “based on lies”.
Nineteen Republican attorneys general are investigating the climate change policies of six of the largest U.S. banks — policies Republicans will no doubt embrace. “Finance companies pushing to reduce the use of fossil fuels will be under pressure,” Mr. Clifton.
But Republican strategists say the companies most likely to come under scrutiny are big asset manager BlackRock and its chief executive Larry Fink. Just this week, BlackRock disclosed more details about its efforts to give investors direct voting rights, in part in response to critics who say the company has too much influence. In his annual letter to the CEO, Mr. Fink is strong evidence that both climate-based goals and ESG more generally matter to society and the business bottom line. Shareholders “need to know where we stand on social issues inherent in the company’s long-term success,” he wrote in a recent letter.
One who makes the opposite point – that companies should stick to making money and give up ESG and politics – is investor Vivek Ramaswamy, whose book Woke Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam is influential in Republican circles. For example , last spring, Mr. Ramaswamy speaks during a Republican retreat in the House of Representatives in Florida. “What I have to say is popular,” he told me.
There are also areas where Republicans may help companies because their positions are so in sync with company goals. gentlemen. Clifton told me that Republicans will push for more energy infrastructure — like pipelines from Canada — which of course energy companies want.
Republicans and big business alike want less regulation. With Republicans in power, congressional committees will question the conduct of Democratic agency heads. Has the NLRB become too pro-union, especially when it comes to dealing with Amazon? Where is the SEC’s authority to issue proposed rules for climate-related disclosures? In a strongly worded letter to its director Rohit Chopra last September, a group of Republican senators described whether the CFPB was pursuing a “radical and highly politicized agenda that is not subject to statutory restrictions”? Is FTC Chair Lina Kahn moving the agency too far to the left?
As for the Environmental Protection Agency, which has long been a Republican target, trade publication E&E News predicts “hours-long hearings,” “letters asking for documents from all corners of the agency,” and “even a text-message subpoena.”