Happy Friday, Show Mo Facts supporters! In today’s blog post, we’ll evaluate and fact-check a thread of tweets posted on Twitter by current Missouri Attorney General, Eric Schmitt. Schmitt is Missouri’s Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate.
In this thread of tweets, Schmitt campaigns on his new lawsuit investigating US banks for pushing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies. Schmitt argues that the involvement of American banks in the Net Zero Banking Alliance, a worldwide voluntary agreement overseen by the United Nations, would negatively impact Missouri’s economy.
Claim: ESG policies kill American jobs.
Fact: Allowing climate change to persist is what will kill American jobs and ESG policies create more job opportunities.
ESG policies adopted by American banks are voluntary decisions to base their lending and investment choices based on a company’s environmental impacts. ESG policies mean banks are more likely to invest in companies that strive to reduce emissions over time.
First, we must discuss why ESG policies are urgent and important. Global climate change is a problem NOW. NASA (2021), explains that “changes to the Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gasses are already showing widespread effects on the environment.” Among these changes in the environment include increasing droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfalls.
The effects of draughts and extreme weather harm all the industries that Schmitt aims to protect because these conditions diminish our water supply, harm livestock and crops in agriculture, prevent the transportation industry from functioning properly, disrupt energy reliability, and increase the threat of pollutants to the water we all drink.
As temperatures increase globally due to carbon emissions, 60 percent of global agricultural hours, followed by 19 percent of construction hours, are lost due to heat stress (Schlein, 2019). Additionally, NASA (2021) explains that if greenhouse gas emissions continue, corn crop yields are projected to decline by 24 percent by 2030. In 2021 alone, extreme weather and climate change disasters have killed 688 people and cost $145 billion in the US. These disasters are a greater and more immediate threat to the safety of the American people and American industries than ESG policies.
Second, striving toward ESG policies will minimally affect Missouri industries, but will significantly improve people’s lives in the long run. Missouri consumes eight times more energy than it produces. As such, only 0.2 percent of Missouri workers are in the oil, gas, and mining industries. If Missouri were to transition to renewable energy sources, Missouri jobs would likely remain stable. Renewable energy sources have now surpassed fossil fuels in being the cheapest energy source; therefore, shifting toward renewable energy will likely lower energy prices for Missourians.
For the US, a push for ESG policies represents opportunities for growth and adaptation. ESGs do not destroy American jobs, they create them. A report by the World Resources Institute (2021) reports that renewable energy investments, on average, result in 2.8 times more jobs than fossil fuels. The table attached below demonstrates how the energy and transportation sectors produce more jobs through ESG policies than through nonrenewable sources.
With these facts in mind, Schmitt is launching yet another frivolous lawsuit against American companies to advance his campaign using taxpayer dollars. Schmitt’s general office budget as Attorney General is $27.7 million, yet he has continued to request additional funding of $500,000 to support his aggressive campaign of lawsuits. Missourians would not want their taxpayer dollars to be used on lawsuits that are unlikely to progress further, especially when both St. Louis and Kansas City have already embraced the goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050, regardless of banks’ ESG policies.
Schmitt’s lawsuit against American banks urges the judicial branch to oversee and control banks’ lending and investment choices which seems contrary to the Republican value of limited government. 74 percent of Republicans believe the federal government has too much power, yet Schmitt’s lawsuit urges for government intervention. Schmitt’s values are inconsistent.
Schmitt attaches the Fox News article to his post to push his interpretation of ESGs, especially since most of the Fox News article was centered around his quotations. If Schmitt truly wanted voters to have complete information, he should have presented a multi-perspectival view of ESGs that considers their potential costs and benefits. As discussed, the potential benefits of ESGs in increasing American jobs far outweigh the potential costs.
Because Schmitt only presents the costs of ESGs while omitting the potential benefits, we rate this ad EXTREME on our Pants on Fire O-Meter. Schmitt misrepresents the possible outcomes that can come with ESGs and effective government planning.
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