CleanTechnica is the #1 cleantech-focused
website in the world. Subscribe today!


Climate Change Senator Barrasso

Published on March 7th, 2010 | by Zachary Shahan

7

Republicans Fighting for Bad Market Practices

Share on Google+Share on RedditShare on StumbleUponTweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on FacebookPin on PinterestDigg thisShare on TumblrBuffer this pageEmail this to someone

March 7th, 2010 by Zachary Shahan 

[social_buttons]

Republicans are supposed to be more of the “let the market take care of things” people. However, when it comes to an issue they don’t want to address at all, some of them are apparently even willing to make an attack on the financial market.

A key to a well-functioning market is the availability and sharing of information. It is one of the most basic and important assumptions behind market-driven policies.

Due to the impending (and already beginning) effects of climate change on our world, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently decided that companies “must consider the effects of global warming and efforts to curb climate change when disclosing business risks to investors.”

However, at least one Republican in Congress is going out of his way (..well, has written a two-sentence bill) to try to stop this from happening.

It is really sad to see Congressmen so against protecting the natural world that sustains us that they will even weaken the market in order to stop this from happening.

Despite a group of 56 investment industry leaders with $2.1 trillion in assets applauding the SEC’s decision, a certain Senator John Barrasso from Wyoming thinks he knows better.

He introduced legislation on February 24 that would not allow the SEC to require that companies disclose their climate-related risks for investors.

Why is this against the whole purpose of the SEC?

Among other things, the SEC is set up to make sure investors receive financial and other important information regarding securities that are offered for public sale.

Climate change is an important issue for investors. That is very clear in the markets where they do have some knowledge about the link between different companies or industries and climate change.

“Alexander Bassen and Sebastian Rothe have found that carbon-intensive utilities fare worse on European stock markets than low-carbon utilities. That is, European investors reward low-carbon utilities,” Richard Caperton of Center for American Progress reports.

Similarly, in the US, “Goldman Sachs Sustain has found that carbon intensity is responsible for large proportions of the difference in stock valuations in certain U.S. industries such as airlines, mining, and utilities. Here again, investors are rewarding low-carbon companies.”

These are industries where investors have some knowledge about a company’s relationship to climate change. In industries where there is a significant but not well-known or obvious link to climate change (i.e. the food and beverage industry), investors want more information. They have a right to that information.

As the investors managing $2.1 trillion in assets write, “The SEC was founded on the principle that the purchase and sale of securities should be an honest bargain based on full and fair disclosure. The climate change disclosure guidance carries that tradition and legal requirement forward to a pressing challenge facing businesses in this century.”

Despite the economic crisis we are trying to climb out of, Barrasso and others are trying to debilitate the market and our future economy further.

The SEC and Congress, plain and simply, should not give in to or tolerate this attack on the US and the world economy.

Image Credit: talkradionews via flickr under a CC license

Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.



Share on Google+Share on RedditShare on StumbleUponTweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on FacebookPin on PinterestDigg thisShare on TumblrBuffer this pageEmail this to someone

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,


About the Author

spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.


Related Posts



  • juangault

    If you were walking in the shoes these men wear, you’d probably be doing the same thing. There is a pattern in human behavior. Being fair and just is not easy. Like walking on a rope. The way that a lot of people, Republican and Democrat, make a living is to have the power to add cost to a product on it’s way to the consumer. The power becomes obsessive over time, and the price rises. Competition is suppose to keep things in check. The final equation is the advantage of centralized mass production, versus higher cost-of-production, but decentralized distribution of what people need. One way is more profitable, one way is harder work. If one never does work for a living, how else can they make it besides being superfluous businessmen? It will do us little good to replace centralized coal electricity with centralized windfarm electricity. Investors want their money. Alternative energy is best generated where it’s used. Skid the grid, let Bloom lead the way.

  • juangault

    If you were walking in the shoes these men wear, you’d probably be doing the same thing. There is a pattern in human behavior. Being fair and just is not easy. Like walking on a rope. The way that a lot of people, Republican and Democrat, make a living is to have the power to add cost to a product on it’s way to the consumer. The power becomes obsessive over time, and the price rises. Competition is suppose to keep things in check. The final equation is the advantage of centralized mass production, versus higher cost-of-production, but decentralized distribution of what people need. One way is more profitable, one way is harder work. If one never does work for a living, how else can they make it besides being superfluous businessmen? It will do us little good to replace centralized coal electricity with centralized windfarm electricity. Investors want their money. Alternative energy is best generated where it’s used. Skid the grid, let Bloom lead the way.

  • juangault

    If you were walking in the shoes these men wear, you’d probably be doing the same thing. There is a pattern in human behavior. Being fair and just is not easy. Like walking on a rope. The way that a lot of people, Republican and Democrat, make a living is to have the power to add cost to a product on it’s way to the consumer. The power becomes obsessive over time, and the price rises. Competition is suppose to keep things in check. The final equation is the advantage of centralized mass production, versus higher cost-of-production, but decentralized distribution of what people need. One way is more profitable, one way is harder work. If one never does work for a living, how else can they make it besides being superfluous businessmen? It will do us little good to replace centralized coal electricity with centralized windfarm electricity. Investors want their money. Alternative energy is best generated where it’s used. Skid the grid, let Bloom lead the way.

  • Bill W

    Many Republican politicians, especially those from coal and oil states, have adopted a party line that anthropogenic climate change is a hoax and that therefore there’s no reason to do anything about it.

    Ultimately, when we reach the point that climate change is so obvious that even they can no longer deny it, these men may face prosecution (or at least persecution) for the damage they’ve caused. Sadly, by that point it may be too late to prevent runaway warming.

  • Bill W

    Many Republican politicians, especially those from coal and oil states, have adopted a party line that anthropogenic climate change is a hoax and that therefore there’s no reason to do anything about it.

    Ultimately, when we reach the point that climate change is so obvious that even they can no longer deny it, these men may face prosecution (or at least persecution) for the damage they’ve caused. Sadly, by that point it may be too late to prevent runaway warming.

  • http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer

    Wyoming is 90% coal powered, (and has vigorously resisted passing a Renewable Energy Standard, keeping it that way).

    Senator Barrasso also opposed the $10,000 rebates for his constituents that is funding such a rush on home wind projects in windy Wyoming that they ran out of (the amount the state supposed was) a year’s funding within weeks.

    It’s too bad.

  • http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer

    Wyoming is 90% coal powered, (and has vigorously resisted passing a Renewable Energy Standard, keeping it that way).

    Senator Barrasso also opposed the $10,000 rebates for his constituents that is funding such a rush on home wind projects in windy Wyoming that they ran out of (the amount the state supposed was) a year’s funding within weeks.

    It’s too bad.

Back to Top ↑

© 2014   Sustainable Enterprises Media, Inc.



Back to Top ↑