“Climate change is not a financial risk that we should worry about,” said Stuart Kirk, a responsible-investing executive of HBSC, one of the world’s largest banking and investment houses last week. He spoke at the “Moral Money” conference in London sponsored by the Financial Times. According to British sources, he was suspended from his job…
Are You Paying to Save a Forest that Won’t Be Cut Down Anyway?
This blog has long raised questions about carbon offsets. And now the New York Times is ruminating over them, too—in particular, over the amounts of money that airline passengers pay to “offset” their use of jet fuel. Some airlines (such as Air Canada and KLM) allow you to get rid of travel guilt by paying…
Elon Musk Disputes Tesla’s Removal from “ESG” Index
Elon Musk made news this past week (again) by castigating the S&P Index for removing Tesla from its index of ESG-approved stocks. “ESG is a scam,” he tweeted. “It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.” ESG refers to whether a company is sufficiently active in the areas of “environmental, social, and governance.” Here’s…
Plea: Don’t Force the Post Office into an Electric-Vehicle Boondoggle
“The Postal Service should not be a test dummy for the administration’s speculative goals and it is an insult to taxpayers to treat it this way.” So writes Guy Caruso on RealClearEnergy. Here’s what’s happening: The Biden administration is trying to persuade the Postal Service (USPS) to invest in more electric vehicles. In March the…
Think Globally, Act Locally: Vines Are Killing Trees on George Washington Parkway
A long-time resident of Alexandria, Virginia, has castigated the National Park Service (NPS) for failing to protect the trees along the George Washington Parkway. In a Washington Post op-ed, John R. Powers writes that vines are strangling trees. “In 2021, the NPS budget was $2.8 billion, but not a penny was spent on the maintenance of…