13 US States warn that giant climate activists funds are buying up public utilities

BlackRock logo

By Jo Nova

Move over divestment and boycott  — and move in activist shareholders wielding other people’s money. After naive shareholders sold out, they didn’t have much influence over a company.  But if they bought enough shares instead, they could practically run the place.

Good people left their money unguarded in pension plans and it came to be used against them.

The three largest asset managers in the world are BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard. They swept up the retirement money left unwatched in accounts Big-Government forced everyone to have.  The Big Three now manage $20 trillion dollars combined. They also happen to want to end fossil fuel use and save the world — because they are nice people, right. So we face the dilemma — The citizens rejected NetZero, but the citizen’s money gives the power to men like Larry Fink, head of Blackrock, to harrass the boards of oil and energy companies in order to get NetZero through the back door.

To appreciate how influential these monster funds are, ponder that they are the largest shareholders in nine out of ten of the S&P 500 Index companies and lately, they have been buying up US power utilities.

These funds joined the climate activist clubs (like GFANZ), and made their political ambitions clear. Despite that screaming potential conflict-of-interest, the government agency that was meant to stop this sort thing (FERC) gave special approval instead. Apparently BlackRock and Vanguard were allowed to buy as much as 20% of some public utilities if they just promised to be “passive” investors who didn’t use their shares to influence management. Who needs fences, just ask the fox not to eat the chickens OK?

Imagine if someone managing a galactic-blob of money made decisions about your energy grid, and what your electricity will  cost, and you got no say in it? Government by Oligarchs? They won’t care what your electricity bill is.

The US State governments are the best hope for the West. Last month 13 US State Attorney’s raised the alarm. Perhaps this was one of the reasons Vanguard dropped out of GFANZ?

This is how we win. But it’s just the start of this battle. This is one facet of the dark bubble driving the madness.

State AGs Sound the Alarm About BlackRock, Vanguard Buying Large Stakes in Utilities

Kevin Stocklin,  Epoch Times

Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman says he doesn’t want Larry Fink to ‘be my emperor’

The acquisition by investment managers BlackRock and Vanguard of ever-increasing shares in America’s public utility companies is setting off alarm bells from conservatives and progressives alike.

In November, 13 state attorneys general petitioned FERC to deny Vanguard’s request. Claiming that residents of their states could be harmed if utilities are compelled to stop using fossil fuels in favor of wind and solar power, the attorneys general argued that “Vanguard is not entitled to a blanket authorization to acquire substantial equity and voting power in utility companies.”

State Street asset fund manager. Logo.

Influence of the Big Three

“What these activists have figured out is that any radical policy that they can’t get enacted through government can be advanced through corporate America by hijacking trillions of dollars in voting rights from everyday Americans’ retirement accounts,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) stated.

The Senate report further noted that “thanks to the tremendous scale of the savings entrusted with them, the Big Three together cast around one-quarter of all votes at shareholder meetings of most S&P 500 companies …

“These targets come out of the Paris Accord, which couldn’t even get passed through a Democratic Senate,” Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, told The Epoch Times. “Voters have rejected these net-zero by 2050 goals over and over again. So now we’re seeing this, in my opinion, illegitimate attempt to use corporate America to push these goals.”

Read it all at The Epoch Times.

See also:

The dark bubble: There’s a reason everything seems to be going off the rails simultaneously

Photo: Photo by eflon on Flickr. Adapted. CC by 2.0.

Photo: State Street website.

10 out of 10 based on 73 ratings

45 comments to 13 US States warn that giant climate activists funds are buying up public utilities

  • #
    David Maddison

    It’s horrifying how a majority of people have now fallen for what is undoubtedly the biggest fraud in history.

    520

    • #
      NuThink

      David, France24 (in English) has been carrying a lot about the mental anguish people are experiencing about climate catastrophe, and that it transcends all age groups.

      Just one of the links.
      https://www.france24.com/en/video/20220111-eco-anxiety-the-chronic-fear-of-environmental-cataclysm

      The problem is that too many main stream media aid and abet the scare mongers without concern for the damage that they are doing, and it would be hoped that they will face the day of reckoning for the harm that they are doing to vast numbers of people both young and old and those in between.
      Google has many links to various problems on France24.

      Remember that just one program by Orson Welles in the War of the Worlds caused mass panic, so imagine what the 24 hours a day mass propaganda is doing.

      https://www.history.co.uk/this-day-in-history/30-october/orson-welles-causes-panic-with-his-%25E2%2580%2598war-of-the-worlds%25E2%2580%2599-broadcast

      280

      • #
        KP

        ” so imagine what the 24 hours a day mass propaganda is doing.”

        Its weeding out the unthinking sheeple from the rest. Its pretty hard to find any sympathy for people who worry themselves sick because they’re too thick to find a second opinion. This is why I don’t support democracy at all…

        00

    • #
      RobertR

      And these people are walking around saying that the cold whether we are experiencing now is caused by “climate change” and saying we have to do something about carbon emissions because it is cold for goodness sake!
      On the Gold Coast it is the coolest summer everybody can remember! Yesterday morning it was 19 degrees, today 21 degrees. Its usually 30 degrees or more in late December!
      How can the scammers convince the majority, especially young people, that their argument that relies solely on emissions greenhouse global warming is backed up by the fact that temperatures are decreasing!!!
      When are they going to get over it???

      381

      • #
        Adellad

        “They” do not have any wish to get over it. “It” is the basis for One World Government and the disenfranchisement of people like you. Facts about the weather are totally irrelevant.

        320

    • #
      Mantaray Yunupingu

      What majority David?

      I see three or four fossil-field vehicles in every garage / driveway when strolling about pre-dawn before some go off to work. I see every airport and every cruise-ship terminal PACKED as the holidays approach. I see millions of Aussies doing all manner of things involving planes and helicopters and 4WDs and and and.

      Are you really sure all these multiple millions believe (have fallen for) the assertion that they are “destroying the planet” with their behaviour?

      202

      • #
        Saighdear

        Maybe saying and doing are TWO different things… (statement or question)

        230

      • #
        PeterPetrum

        I think a very large proportion of the population of western countries believe that man made CO2 does affect the climate. Most surveys show that when asked if they are “concerned” about climate change the answer is “yes”. However, when asked whether they are prepared to make sacrifices, either financial or life style, the assets are very different. This begs the question as to whether a majority of people surveyed are hypocrites who give an answer that they believe is expected, but which they do not really believe.

        170

      • #
        RickWill

        It is like going to church to achieve salvation. Vote for a Green and you will be forgiven for your sinful use of CO2.

        The problem only comes when the Greens dictate what you can and cannot do. It is only then you realise you have given away your freedom to choose.

        110

        • #
          Bruce

          It is EXACTLY the same framework as good-old Medieval “Indulgences””; essentially a system of “paying in advance” for your sins. For what we are about to do…..here’s some cash”.

          It is also straight-up corporate statism.

          Those who have been paying attention will know that one of the more famous 20th Century manifestation was started by an Italian socialist in the early 1920s and was raised to an art-form; with the usual spectacular body-count by another socialist in Germany. Meanwhile in Imperial Russia, the game was played on a colossal scale.

          The ONLY real difference between the NATIONAL socialists in Germany and their INTERNATIONAL socialist cousins in the soviet union was that the Nazis had Hugo Boss as chief costume designer.

          Other than that, they were ALL totalitarian, genocidal thugs.

          And, when it comes to the body-count race, NOBODY has, so far, come close the that Chinese chap who starved 50+ million to death, enslaved a few million more and is officially remembered for a cheesy little book and going for a swim in a muddy river..

          20

      • #
        Geoffrey Williams

        There us no doubt the majority of voters in the western democracies are CO2 climate change believers and vote as such. (And yes it is the greatest fraud in history) In reality however they carry on burning fossil fuels to maintain their lifestyles. Hypocrites . .

        40

  • #
    John Hultquist

    In cases of passive index funds, these large money managers have no choice but to buy publicly traded companies.
    The question becomes one of intent.
    Larry Fink is well named.

    231

  • #
    Neville

    Everything we’ve been told about the Climate change BS and fraud is exaggerated nonsense and the co2 Coalition etc have the best scientists to back up their claims.
    Here’s my quick proof AGAIN. Since 1970 the global population has more than doubled and yet global life expectancy has increased from 56.5 years to 73 years in 2022.
    AGAIN our poorest continent Africa has seen life expectancy increase from 46 yrs in 1970 to 64 years in 2022.
    But African population has also increased from 363 million in 1970 to over 1400 million today and during a very bad HIV AIDs disaster over that period as well.
    But when do you see or hear about the above data from the MSM or stupid pollies or so called scientists etc? This UN data can be found on many sites online.
    Just to finish, it took about 200K years to reach 1 billion humans in 1810 and this increased to 3.7 billion in 1970. Yet we’ve added another 4.3 billion in just the last half century.
    Somehow I don’t see their so called CRISIS or EMERGENCY or EXISTENTIAL THREAT and YET these religious loonies STILL BELIEVE?

    300

  • #
    Neville

    More proof AGAIN about our increased HEALTH and WEALTH 1810 to 2010 from Dr Rosling and only takes about 4 minutes of your time.
    BTW we’ve increased global population by another 1 billion since 2010 from 7 bn then to 8 bn today.
    Yet the rate of population increase has been falling since 1963. See Macrotrends or OWI Data etc for the UN data.
    Here’s “the joy of stats BBC” video link from Dr Rosling in 2011.

    .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo

    100

  • #
    David Maddison

    The vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway said he doesn’t want Larry Fink to ‘be my emperor’.

    Good.

    But Warren Buffet has in the past invested in wind subsidy farms and still does. But he admitted that the only point was to harvest tax credits, otherwise they were useless machines. Useless, just like the people who promote them.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertbryce/2021/01/13/iowa-wind-expansion-derailed-by-the-bridges-of-madison-county/

    Back in 2014, Warren Buffett, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire HathawayBRK.B, famously said “We get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them.”

    Since then, MidAmerican Energy, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, has aggressively built lots of wind farms and now expects to collect $10 billion in federal tax credits on the $12.9 billion it has spent erecting wind turbines. But Buffett’s company’s push to add even more turbines in Iowa is being derailed by the bridges of Madison County.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    200

    • #
      Ronin

      “We get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them.”

      I’m sure that’s the only reason Elon builds battery powered cars, the generous subsidies, if they disappear, so will he.

      180

      • #
        Ross

        It’s also why Dyson (of vacuum cleaner fame) couldn’t find a way to make money from EV’s. He invested a lot of his money and gave up, because the profit wasn’t there and possibly he couldn’t attract subsidies from the UK government. The legacy car companies use EV’s as some sort of green credit so they can still sell high performance V8’s, V10’s etc. Otherwise, I dont think they would be selling them either, other than via government mandates.

        130

  • #
    exsteelworker

    Who cares, because it will be the young climate change alarmists that demand the end of reliable fossil fuel energy that will suffer the most when the proverbial hits the fan. Enjoy your dramatic drop in living standards kids, after all, you voted for it, bwahaha.

    300

    • #
      b.nice

      “it will be the young climate change alarmists that demand the end of reliable fossil fuel energy that will suffer the most when the proverbial hits the fan”

      Said it before… will say it again…

      They are destroying their own future.

      They will only have themselves to blame.

      230

      • #
        Steve of Cornubia

        Don’t worry, they will have a furnace of inner virtue to keep them warm in their caves and shelters. Food shouldn’t be a problem because, with large-scale farming obliterated, insect populations will flourish among the weeds …

        130

    • #
      Ronin

      They’ve been brainwashed (programmed) all the way through the education system, watch them all vote left from next election onwards.

      130

      • #
        el+gordo

        Totally agree, our only hope is that the Australian Brainwashing Corporation begins to tell the truth on climate change. That should bring the facade down and the education system will recover.

        70

    • #
      bobby b

      “Who cares, because it will be the young climate change alarmists that demand the end of reliable fossil fuel energy that will suffer the most when the proverbial hits the fan. Enjoy your dramatic drop in living standards kids, after all, you voted for it, bwahaha.”

      I started down that “hey, I’m 65, why make my life miserable fighting for a future I’ll never have to see?” road, but then I remembered I have kids who vote like I vote, and they’re going to have kids . . . .

      20

  • #
    Neville

    Here’s Dr Rosling’s TED talk trying to end our ignorance of our Human world.
    This huge audience of young tertiary educated people were all equipped with instant hand controls to measure their replies to 3 important questions.
    This first Q&A takes about 6 minutes and I’m sure most people on Jo’s blog will easily understand and choose the correct answer.
    BUT this wasn’t the case at this talk and the answers were no better than a random choice or just like the Chimps.
    Just imagine the Bowen, Albo, Biden, Gore, King Charles, Plibersek, Flannery etc loonies trying to answer these very simple questions? What a joke.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5xF-UYgdg

    70

  • #
    David Maddison

    It took about the last 3000-4000 years to build Western Civilisation.

    It’s take only the last 30-40 years of Leftist propaganda to destroy it.

    And if the thinking community continues to remain silent, FAR worse is yet to come.

    230

    • #
      John Connor II

      Yes, but fraud, corruption, lying, wars, false flags and economic/societal collapse are evident throughout all 6,500 years of human history albeit still attributed to the loony left, not just the past few decades.
      We really have the plandemic to thank for exposing the sheer number of sociopath lefties out there.

      210

  • #
    John Connor II

    Per Martin Armstrong:

    The key turning point of BlackRock ECM is due January 24/25th, 2023. I have sounded the caution bell because with January also being a key target in many markets, this is a coincidence that should not be overlooked. Blackstone and its real estate fund is also illiquid. You cannot invest long-term and then have demand deposits.

    Q1/Q2 January looks to be mass chaos everywhere so it’ll be interesting to see who and what is left standing by mid year.
    Of course nature has its own plans too and things are really getting interesting.

    Enjoy xmas!

    110

  • #

    New York State electric generators are now mostly owned by private investors that don’t care that they emit CO2.
    The downside is that it is purely a business and they have no obligation to serve so they will bail when the going gets tough.
    In the absence of magical solutions New York’s net zero by 2050 nonsense means the going will get tough.

    80

  • #

    The big 3 are also the major shareholders in all the media (along with everything else. You name it they own it!)

    110

  • #
    David Maddison

    IQ scores are actually dropping in Western countries, possibly due do to the dumbing-down of the education system.

    It makes people even easier to manipulate than before and the Left don’t fail to exploit that fact.

    https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/iq-rates-are-dropping-many-developed-countries-doesn-t-bode-ncna1008576

    IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn’t bode well for humanity

    An intelligence crisis could undermine our problem-solving capacities and dim the prospects of the global economy.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    190

    • #
      KP

      “IQ rates are dropping in many developed countries and that doesn’t bode well for humanity”

      Pfft! All they’re worried about is that America won’t be at the top! Humanity will do extremely well with a brownish skin and slanted eyes, get your grandkids to learn an Asian language. Oh wait! They’re too stupid to learn that!

      20

  • #

    I’m starting to think that we are being screwed by human nature! On the economic spectrum we are being screwed by the extremes. Once someone is in a position to freely accumulate power through wealth or control, very few are able to control themselves. A few hundred million $ is never enough, opposing someone’s decrees ends with people having to die. Rowan Dean, on Sunday, had me shouting at the screen, (as he was extolling the wonders of capitalism) that he was ignoring crony and monopoly capitalism. They are major problems, but maybe it’s just human nature expressing itself, and instead of lining up behind either team, we should be thinking a bit more deeply. Anyway, probably they are too drunk on the benefits to listen. Bill Gates and Xi will become philosophers!? I don’t think I’ll hold my breath.

    60

    • #

      Capitalism is not the problem. Corruption is. Fiat currencies are made from thin air, and if they expand without limit, so does corruption. Inflation steals from the hourly-wage-worker and transfers wealth to those at the leading edge of the financial bell curve. The uber rich get the big loans to spend first at lower prices, and by the time the new higher prices arrive the workers have lost purchasing power.

      There is no free market in interest rates — a government appointed group set the interest rate, and government appointed set of banks print money from thin air, and charge interest on it, and if you or I do it, it’s called counterfeiting. The fractional reserve banking system can work, but it needs some natural brake on money creation so that inflation is kept low. That could come in the form of competition from other currencies (or store of wealth) like the value of gold, or perhaps crypto (I’ve yet to be convinced). All fiat currencies are inflating around the world, and until recently, none were backed by gold or some other form of self-limiting base.

      It is only massive debasement of the currency through artificially low interest rates that allows monster mergers and acquisitions that creates the billionaire oligopolists in the first place.

      80

      • #
        red edwards

        “All fiat currencies are inflating around the world, and until recently, none were backed by gold or some other form of self-limiting base.”

        Jo, could you please name the currency that has some form of backing? (I don’t consider Crypto a currency.)

        20

  • #
    Ross

    My son works for one of the Aussie big banks. He was watching the annual general meeting online last week. There was quite a commotion during the meeting. A number of activist type shareholders demanding that the bank management do a lot more about “climate change”. The board members eventually tired of the same question multiple times and rejected any further. There were then quite vocal walkouts by those climate activists. So, it seems banks (this bank at least) are only partially “green, that perhaps those in management realise that ESG is a crock of “you know what”.

    170

  • #
    Ossqss

    ESG by proxy.

    30

  • #
    winston

    Of course they are taking over. The entire point of the CO2 climate change panic has always been mercantilistic/fascistic hostile takeover of the energy production and distribution systems. Energy is wealth.
    The only question is when, or if, the green hysterical cannon fodder will wake up to how they’ve been used, and if they do wake, whether they’ll turn on their masters, suicide, or burn down everthing in order to save it.

    30

  • #
    Dennis

    Watch for union’s industry super funds investing, like Cbus where Wayne Swan the former Labor Treasurer is now employed.

    40

    • #
      Dave

      Their ALP mates get very well looked after

      ALP federal president & ex treasurer Wayne Swan chairman of Diatreme Resources has proposed two silica mines overlooking the Great Barrier Reef. Permits were approved by the Palaszczuk government with alleged native title owner’s consent. A smell that needs investigating by NACC

      Have a look at the area to be mined along with other claims

      Me thinks Wayne NEVER in SURPLUS Swan will be well off after this.

      30

  • #
    Dennis

    This has been posted before however read it and learn about the rise and fall of a wind turbine business venture and consider the future after government support and subsidies and as removal and replacement time approaches.

    https://stopthesethings.com/2017/03/13/born-lucky-stars-align-perfectly-for-pms-son-with-mammoth-bet-on-wind-power-outfit-infigen/

    20

  • #
    Bozotheclown

    Quite possibly the way to stop this is with anti-trust (monopoly) and anti-racketeering (RICO) laws. Class action law suites by small investors against management with fiduciary obligations should start yesterday.

    00

  • #

    […] has put it all together with a recent post delving into how those trillions are being made on the backs of everyday people, a template for […]

    10