Republican attorneys general from 16 states sent a letter warning the Biden administration against continuing climate change policies they say contributed to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The letter described how the Bank invested heavily in climate-related projects because federal regulators pushed banks in this direction as part of the Biden administration’s ‘whole of government’ approach to fighting climate change. This converted regulators into environmental activists, and led them to chase the chimera of climate-related risk while ignoring true financial risks as traditionally understood.
Where were the regulators? Lost in green fantasies and daydreams. Thus, rescuing the Bank’s depositors was a sacrifice offered on the altar of climate change, “an attempt to provide financial support to an important constituency.” The constituents bailed out were people who had bought into and actively promoted by their words and deeds the government’s phony narrative on climate change. The focus on expensive green energy sources raised inflation and increased financial risk throughout the system, the letter said.
Once again, we find money at the heart of the climate change narrative. This is why I have trouble taking what green energy and climate advocates say seriously. I know they’re being paid to say it, one way or another. So, cry me an atmospheric river about climate change, I don’t believe a word of it.
The money flows from several directions, starting with Uncle Sugar, the federal government. We can begin with the Inflation Reduction Act which, in actuality, implements the Left’s radical green agenda and pours billions of taxpayer dollars into green initiatives. The Act’s $370 billion comes on top of another $100 billion the federal government has spent on climate initiatives over the last 20 years. The EPA has announced a billion dollars in climate grants already this year.
Where’s it all going? Green energy companies, for starters. An infrastructure bill in 2021 provided $9 billion in incentives for electric school buses and other no-emission vehicles. Electric bus company Proterra and others stood to benefit. There is a revolving door of government officials who leave their posts to cash in by going to work for the same green energy companies they once oversaw.
Billionaires are also in on the action. Michael Bloomberg had a hand in crafting climate risk disclosure rules for business, rules that will grow his $10 billion Bloomberg Terminal business. Investors use Bloomberg Terminals to get global investment data and information about investment risks. Just a little conflict of interest, wouldn’t you say?
But the poster child for green moguls is Al Gore. He amassed a $330 million fortune scaring everybody half to death with his crazy and dead-wrong predictions about climate change. Then he laughed all the way to the bank making green investments through his $36 billion investment firm, Generation Investment Management.
He’s not alone. Bill Gates and other left-wing billionaires provided seed money for two electric battery companies and benefit from rising stock prices. These billionaires are big donors to the Democrat Party and reap windfall profits when Democrats push through green policies. They even have a group called Clean Energy for Biden which raised millions for his campaign, then lobbied for passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. See how this works? Buy the policies, make the money. Once again, I find myself saying ‘follow the money’ – it’s all financial self-interest and has absolutely nothing to do with the environment. Net-zero.
Schemes like this have been called ‘legal plunder’ and ‘the greatest wealth transfer to the wealthy in history’. Bill Gates wrote a book telling you to eat fake meat and oh, by the way, he has a stake in a company that sells fake meat. Elon Musk makes twice as much money from selling carbon credits than he does from electric vehicles.
If you still believe all of this is about the environment, all I can say is ‘there’s a sucker born every minute.’
Green energy companies and billionaires are not the only ones cashing in on climate mania. I’ll tell you who else is benefitting when I return to this subject next week.
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[…] week, I began to tell you about the people cashing in on green mania, starting with the beneficiaries of federal money from the ideologically overcommitted Biden […]