House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust Chairman Thomas Massie have requested information from over 60 U.S.-based asset managers. The inquiry concerns their participation in the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative, which they describe as a "woke ESG cartel."
The Committee had previously released an interim staff report titled "Climate Control: Exposing the Decarbonization Collusion in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Investing." This report alleges that a "climate cartel" composed of left-wing activists and major financial institutions is working to impose radical ESG goals on American companies.
The investigation aims to determine if current civil and criminal penalties, along with antitrust law enforcement efforts, are adequate to prevent anti-competitive collusion promoting ESG-related goals within the investment industry. The asset managers involved must justify their focus on what is described as woke investments over their fiduciary responsibilities.
Letters were sent to numerous entities across various states including California's CIM Group and Franklin Templeton Investments; Connecticut's Gramercy Funds Management LLC; Florida's Community Capital Management, LLC; Georgia's Invesco; Illinois' LaSalle Investment Management; Massachusetts' Acadian Asset Management Limited; Maryland's T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.; New York's BlackRock, Inc.; Pennsylvania's Federated Hermes Limited; Tennessee's AllianceBernstein; Texas' Sage Advisory; and Washington's Russell Investments.
