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North Carolina-headquartered Barings named in Climate Action 100+ probe

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The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, in a report, says its probe has led to a loss of $17 trillion worth of assets under management by the Climate Action 100+. That includes $6.6 trillion from BlackRock, $4.1 trillion by State Street, $3.1 trillion by JPMorgan, $1.89 trillion by PIMCO, and $1.6 trillion by Invesco.

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An interim report by the Judiciary – Climate Control: Exposing the Decarbonization Collusion in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investing – labels the initiative a “climate cartel,” one which is involved in collusion and has not been investigated by the Biden administration.

One North Carolina company is among more than 130 in the United States being asked by a congressional committee about involvement with environmental, social and governance initiative Climate Action 100+.

U.S. Reps. Deborah Ross and Dan Bishop, a Democrat and Republican respectively from North Carolina, are among the 42 members of the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives seeking answers. In addition to the letter sent to Charlotte-headquartered Barings, the probe also seeks answers on involvement by retirement systems and government pension programs.

The probe and letters dated last Tuesday to Climate Action 100+ is trying to find answers to how the companies are operating with tactics, requests and actions; and garner documentations. A noon Aug. 13 deadline is set for responses.

Antitrust law, and the possible breach of it, is cited in each letter. Antitrust laws, the Department of Justice says, “prohibit anticompetitive conduct and mergers that deprive American consumers, taxpayers, and workers of the benefits of competition.”

An interim report by the Judiciary – Climate Control: Exposing the Decarbonization Collusion in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investing – labels the initiative a “climate cartel,” one which is involved in collusion and has not been investigated by the Biden administration.

“The climate cartel has declared war on our way of life, escalating its attacks on free markets and demanding that companies slash output of the critical products and services that allow Americans to drive, fly, and eat,” the report says. “The Biden administration has failed to act upon the climate cartel’s apparent violations of longstanding U.S. antitrust law. The committee, in contrast, is actively investigating their anticompetitive behavior.”

The report says with launch of the probe came withdrawals from the effort by BlackRock, State Street and JPAM, “three of the world’s largest asset managers.” Asset managers BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard own 21.9% of shares, and vote 24.9% of the shares, within the Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500.

More than 272,000 documents and 2.5 million pages of nonpublic information were reviewed, the Judiciary says.

Most of the letters went to addresses in New York, Massachusetts and California.

Barings, according to its website, “is a global asset management firm which seeks to deliver excess returns across public and private markets in fixed income, real assets and capital solutions.”

In general, ESG investing – an acronym used in conjunction with environmental, social, and governance policies in investments – measures company policy. These policies typically align with progressive, or left, thoughts when it comes to politics.

Other names of description are sustainability, such as treatment of natural resources, gas emissions and climate regulations. A company’s policies for profits shared in the community, and how health and safety are impacted, relates to the social aspect. Governance usually aligns not only with integrity of accountability toward shareholders, but also diversity in leadership.

Issues in a company’s industry and the principles of ESG often shape policy.

Bishop is a member of the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust within the Judiciary Committee. The 26-member subcommittee is chaired by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.

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Business

Premiers fight to lower gas taxes as Trudeau hikes pump costs

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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

By Jay Goldberg 

Thirty-nine hundred dollars – that’s how much the typical two-car Ontario family is spending on gas taxes at the pump this year.

You read that right. That’s not the overall fuel bill. That’s just taxes.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau keeps increasing your gas bill, while Premier Doug Ford is lowering it.

Ford’s latest gas tax cut extension is music to taxpayers’ ears. Ford’s 6.4 cent per litre gas tax cut, temporarily introduced in July 2022, is here to stay until at least next June.

Because of the cut, a two-car family has saved more than $1,000 so far. And that’s welcome news for Ontario taxpayers, because Trudeau is planning yet another carbon tax hike next April.

Trudeau has raised the overall tax burden at the pumps every April for the past five years. Next spring, he plans to raise gas taxes by another three cents per litre, bringing the overall gas tax burden for Ontarians to almost 60 cents per litre.

While Trudeau keeps hiking costs for taxpayers at the pumps, premiers of all stripes have been stepping up to the plate to blunt the impact of his punitive carbon tax.

Obviously, Ford has stepped up to the plate and has lowered gas taxes. But he’s not alone.

In Manitoba, NDP Premier Wab Kinew fully suspended the province’s 14 cent per litre gas tax for a year. And in Newfoundland, Liberal Premier Andrew Furey cut the gas tax by 8.05 cents per litre for nearly two-and-a-half years.

It’s a tale of two approaches: the Trudeau government keeps making life more expensive at the pumps, while premiers of all stripes are fighting to get costs down.

Families still have to get to work, get the kids to school and make it to hockey practice. And they can’t afford increasingly high gas taxes. Common sense premiers seem to get it, while Ottawa has its head in the clouds.

When Ford announced his gas tax cut extension, he took aim at the Liberal carbon tax mandated by the Trudeau government in Ottawa.

Ford noted the carbon tax is set to rise to 20.9 cents per litre next April, “bumping up the cost of everything once again and it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

“Our government will always fight against it,” Ford said.

But there’s some good news for taxpayers: reprieve may be on the horizon.

Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s promises to axe the carbon tax as soon as he takes office.

With a federal election scheduled for next fall, the federal carbon tax’s days may very well be numbered.

Scrapping the carbon tax would make a huge difference in the lives of everyday Canadians.

Right now, the carbon tax costs 17.6 cents per litre. For a family filling up two cars once a week, that’s nearly $24 a week in carbon taxes at the pump.

Scrapping the carbon tax could save families more than $1,200 a year at the pumps. Plus, there would be savings on the cost of home heating, food, and virtually everything else.

While the Trudeau government likes to argue that the carbon tax rebates make up for all these additional costs, the Parliamentary Budget Officer says it’s not so.

The PBO has shown that the typical Ontario family will lose nearly $400 this year due to the carbon tax, even after the rebates.

That’s why premiers like Ford, Kinew and Furey have stepped up to the plate.

Canadians pay far too much at the pumps in taxes. While Trudeau hikes the carbon tax year after year, provincial leaders like Ford are keeping costs down and delivering meaningful relief for struggling families.

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Agriculture

Sweeping ‘pandemic prevention’ bill would give Trudeau government ability to regulate meat production

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Bill C-293, ‘An Act respecting pandemic prevention and preparedness,’ gives sweeping powers to the federal government in the event of a crisis, including the ability to regulate meat production.

The Trudeau Liberals’ “pandemic prevention and preparedness” bill is set to become law despite concerns raised by Conservative senators that the sweeping powers it gives government, particularly over agriculture, have many concerned.

Bill C-293, or An Act respecting pandemic prevention and preparedness, is soon to pass its second reading in the Senate, which all but guarantees it will become law. Last Tuesday in the Senate, Conservative senators’ calls for caution on the bill seemed to fall on deaf ears. 

“Being from Saskatchewan I have heard from many farmers who are very concerned about this bill. Now we hear quite a short second reading speech that doesn’t really address some of those major concerns they have about the promotion of alternative proteins and about the phase-out, as Senator Plett was saying, of some of their very livelihoods,” said Conservative Senator Denise Batters during debate of the bill. 

Batters asked one of the bill’s proponents, Senator Marie-Françoise Mégie, how they will “alleviate those concerns for them other than telling them that they can come to committee, perhaps — if the committee invites them — and have their say there so that they don’t have to worry about their livelihoods being threatened?” 

In response, Mégie replied, “We have to invite the right witnesses and those who will speak about their industry, what they are doing and their concerns. Then we can find solutions with them, and we will do a thorough analysis of the issue. This was done intentionally, and I can provide all these details later. If I shared these details now, I would have to propose solutions myself and I do not have those solutions. I purposely did not present them.” 

Bill C-293 was introduced to the House of Commons in the summer of 2022 by Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith. The House later passed the bill in June of 2024 with support from the Liberals and NDP (New Democratic Party), with the Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois opposing it.   

Bill C-293 would amend the Department of Health Act to allow the minister of health to appoint a “National pandemic prevention and preparedness coordinator from among the officials of the Public Health Agency of Canada to coordinate the activities under the Pandemic Prevention and Preparedness Act.”  

It would also, as reported by LifeSiteNews, allow the government to mandate industry help it in procuring products relevant to “pandemic preparedness, including vaccines, testing equipment and personal protective equipment, and the measures that the Minister of Industry intends to take to address any supply chain gaps identified.”

A close look at this bill shows that, if it becomes law, it would allow the government via officials of the Public Health Agency of Canada, after consulting the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and of Industry and provincial governments, to “regulate commercial activities that can contribute to pandemic risk, including industrial animal agriculture.”  

The bill has been blasted by the Alberta government, who warned that it could “mandate the consumption of vegetable proteins by Canadians” as well as allow the “the federal government to tell Canadians what they can eat.” 

As reported by LifeSiteNews, the Trudeau government has funded companies that produce food made from bugs. The World Economic Forum, a globalist group with links to the Trudeau government, has as part of its Great Reset agenda the promotion of “alternative” proteins such as insects to replace or minimize the consumption of beef, pork, and other meats that they say have high “carbon” footprints.  

Trudeau’s current environmental goals are in lockstep with the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” and include phasing out coal-fired power plants, reducing fertilizer usage, and curbing natural gas use over the coming decades, as well as curbing red meat and dairy consumption. 

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