THE MORNING RANT: Some Good News! ESG Investments & “Clean Energy” Projects Are Failing

What’s most shocking to me about the headline below is that it’s on Bloomberg, which is an obedient mouthpiece of leftism and woke capital.

“The Tyranny of ESG Has Run Its Course: The idea of ESG has been changing since the day it was just a twinkle in a marketer’s eye. Now it’s heading into its inevitable end game” [Bloomberg – 10/19/2023]

The most recent data from the Investment Association showed a third month of outflows from the Responsible Investments category — a record £448 million ($547 million) in August.

Anyone in doubt about the market’s attitude toward ESG investing today need only look at the share price of Impax Asset Management Group Plc. It rose 33 times from late 2015 to late 2021 — and is down 70% since. Bubble, bubble crash.

Of course, there’s no good way to spin the fact that there is a growing tide of investors dumping their ESG investments, which is forcing investment firms and money managers to start closing ESG funds.

“BlackRock, State Street Among Money Managers Closing ESG Funds: More ESG funds in US closed in 2023 than in three prior years” [Bloomberg – 9/21/2023]

BlackRock Inc. and other money managers spent years rolling out sustainable funds, seeking to capitalize on surging interest in ESG investing. Now they’re abandoning an increasing number of those products in the US amid political backlash and investor scrutiny.

“…amid political backlash and investor scrutiny.” Yes, I admit to being part of the backlash. Freedom-loving conservatives like me have most certainly been pouncing and seizing on the politics and poor performance of ESG investments.

State Street Corp., Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Janus Henderson Group Plc and Hartford Funds Management Group Inc., among others, unwound more than two dozen ESG funds this year, according to data from Morningstar Inc.

Money poured into sustainable-investing products in 2020 and 2021, when fund managers debuted more ESG funds or added “ESG” or “sustainable” to the names of existing funds.

ESG is all encompassing of the left’s agenda, including its gender and racial obsessions. But “clean energy” is a particular focus of the ESG pushers. How are green/clean/renewable energy investments doing?

“Clean energy” funds are doing terribly, and investors are yanking what’s left of their money from these bad investments.

“Renewables funds see record outflows as rising rates, costs hit shares” [Reuters – 10/10/2023]

Investors ditched renewable energy funds at the fastest rate on record in the three months to end-September as cleaner energy shares took a beating from higher interest rates and soaring material costs, which are squeezing profit margins.

No, the problem isn’t “soaring material costs.” The problem is that unreliable energy sources such as wind and solar are bad investments that require government subsidies to stay operational in the best of circumstances.

Renewable energy funds globally suffered a net outflow of $1.4 billion in the July-September quarter, the biggest ever quarterly outflow, according to LSEG Lipper data.

The sector's total assets under management now stand at $65.4 billion, a 23% decline from end-June, according to the data.

Take a look at this graph of unreliable “clean” energy investment performance (the line plunging off the bottom of the graph) versus that of traditional reliable energy sources.

Fund managers who lost their shirts (and their customers’ shirts) on “clean energy” investments are probably wishing they’d kept the money invested in good old fashioned “dirty energy” investments.

“Indonesia considers labelling green financing for coal-fired power plants that supply EV battery makers” [Reuters – 9/05/2023]

Indonesia's financial regulator is considering making coal-fired power plants that supply electricity to electric vehicle battery manufacturers eligible for green financing, its chief said on Tuesday, drawing criticism from environmentalists.

“Green energy” is becoming a punchline, as are carbon indulgences offsets:

“Shell has given up specific targets for carbon offsets - CEO” [Reuters – 10/17/2023]

Shell has given up on specific spending and volume targets for carbon offsets, also known as nature-based solutions, Chief Executive Wael Sawan told the Energy Intelligence Forum on Tuesday.

Carbon offsets are a scam and a sham. Money that corporations spend on “offsets” used to provide them some cover for their environmental platitudes, but now that even the left understands what a fraud the “offset marketplace” is, the only thing companies get by buying offsets is ridicule.

Shell had previously said it wanted to invest around $100 million a year on offsets and use credits worth up to 120 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year by 2030.

While this Daily Caller piece below covers much of what I’ve already mentioned, there is something very interesting in it that I hadn’t read before. The term “ESG” has become so toxic that Bond villain Black Rock CEO Larry Fink has sent the term down the euphemism treadmill.

“Woke Investing Takes Massive Hit As Investors Lose Interest” [Daily Caller – 10/23/2023]

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said in June at the Aspen Ideas Festival that he will not use the term “ESG” anymore, citing the term’s political connotation, Axios reported. “I’m ashamed of being part of this conversation,” Fink stated.

This doesn’t mean that Fink is abandoning his dream of imposing the globalists’ cultural communist agenda on us, but it does mean that we have won a major public opinion battle, and that the freedom-suppressing concept of ESG is now so despised that one of the world’s most powerful villains is running from the term.

Or maybe it’s because Fink and BlackRock have been put on notice that its ESG agenda puts it out of compliance with certain state laws.

“Attorney General Ken Paxton Sends Warning to Companies Using ESG Practices” [Daily Caller -
10/18/2023]

Texas already has a law on the books prohibiting any purchase of goods or services in excess of $100,000 if the recipients have ESG policies that negatively affect prominent Texas industries and employers. Paxton is reminding Fink and his ilk that the law will be enforced.

Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton will release an advisory Wednesday that gives updates and guidance on the enforcement of laws passed by the state that restrict government entities from granting large contracts to companies that boycott energy companies, discriminate against firearm entities or associations, or boycott Israel, the Daily Caller has learned first.

“The Office of the Attorney General will continue to vigorously enforce our laws that prevent taxpayer funds from going to companies whose ‘ESG’ policies harm Texans or key Texas industries,” Paxton told the Caller before releasing the advisory.

With ESG investing drying up, the wind farm hustlers are starting to hurt:

“Connecticut’s biggest offshore wind project nearly dead in the water” [CT Mirror – 10/03/2023]

Connecticut’s largest offshore wind project — Park City Wind — is not quite dead in the water but is now on serious life support.

Its developer, Avangrid, announced Monday night that it and Connecticut’s utilities have terminated an agreement for the utilities to buy the power from the project. In doing so, Park City, at 804 megawatts, becomes the third major New England offshore wind project, and the second for Avangrid, to hit the shoals.

The reason for each is the same. The economy has shifted so much since the power purchase agreements, PPAs, were negotiated, that the projects are no longer viable.

Wind projects never were viable, because they never produced a single reliable kilowatt of electricity, much less at an affordable price.

There’s more…

“Offshore wind developers likely to cancel some contracts after New York decision” [Reuters – 10/20/2023]

Developers in the U.S. offshore wind industry will likely cancel some power sales contracts in New York after the state last week denied passing on more of the costs to consumers…

And still more…and all are in liberal, northeastern states.

“Orsted offshore wind farm hit with lawsuit by New Jersey county; Lawsuit seeks to invalidate federal approvals for the farm” [Reuters – 10/17/2023]

A southern New Jersey county on Tuesday challenged federal approvals for a major wind farm in U.S. waters off the state's coast, saying the project’s turbines and construction will harm endangered animals like whales, kill birds and impact local tourism.

The public is starting to aggressively reject wind energy and much of the green agenda. We have a long way to go in our battles against climate communism, woke capital, and the high priests of Sustainable Organic Church of the Carbon Apocalypse, but we have turned the tide.

We cannot let up, but we can take a moment to smile and acknowledge some actual victories in this theater of the war to save western civilization.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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