I realize it seems like a bit of a stretch to pose this question. But trust me. I have a good reason for doing so. It’s important to know the answer to this question. If it is, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has a bigger ESG problem on his hands than he knows. If the American Petroleum Institute (API), founded in 1919, is an ESG Cartel, this former four-time NCAA championship wrestler will find himself in a hammerlock grip even he won’t be able to break.

And lest you think that I, like Mr. Jordan, am grasping at invisible straws, let me present some evidence for this concern. As stated on their website, “API represents all segments of America’s natural gas and oil industry, which supports more than 11 million U.S. jobs and is backed by a growing grassroots movement of millions of Americans. Our nearly 600 members produce, process and distribute the majority of the nation’s energy, and participate in API Energy Excellence®, which is accelerating environmental and safety progress by fostering new technologies and transparent reporting.” Six hundred members is certainly the groundwork for an ESG cartel given the talk about things like environmental and safety progress and transparent reporting. Stuff at the core of ESG 🐥.

Hands Planting The Seedlings Into The Ground | GETTY

Some context will be useful. As I write, Mr. Jordan is fearlessly pursuing his fiery and mindless anti-ESG campaign, with a special focus on climate change. It is always difficult to ascertain the motives of others. Maybe he thinks there’s still some fund raising and vote getting juice in being anti-ESG, although evidence suggests this is more of a cactus than an orange. Maybe he’s doing it simply because he can as Chairman and wants to flex his rassler’s muscles and mess with some woke folks he doesn’t like. Maybe he’s still in a bad mood at losing the House Speakership despite trying to use a pile-driver cow enough members of his conference into submission and cry uncle and vote for him.

On August 1, 2023 he issued nearly identical four-page letters to Andrew Behar of the NGO As You Sow; four asset managers (Natasha Lamb and Farnum Brown of Arjuna Capital, Mirza Baig of Aviva Investors Americas, Christopher James and Jennifer Grancio of Engine No. 1 [famous for its campaign that elected three people with deep oil and gas experience on the board of ExxonMobil—something the company had never had before], and Matthew W. Patsky of Trillium Asset Management); and two proxy advisory firms, Kevin Cameron of Glass Lewis and Gary Retelny of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS).

In July they sent similar letters to Blackrock, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors, NZAM (Net Zero Asset Managers) and GFANZ (Glasgow financial Advisors for Net Zero). Last November the NGO Ceres and the nation’s largest pension fund CalPERS received their letters. So far three subpoenas have gone out: one to Ceres during the summer, and on November 1 to GFANZ and As You Sow.

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