Manchin and 37 Republicans oppose Biden’s ESG move.

Senators Push Back Against Treasury Department’s Pressure on Insurance Regulators to Consider ESG Factors

Letter from Senators Highlights Concerns Over Climate Risk Data Collection Effort

More than three dozen Republican senators, including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), have raised concerns about the Treasury Department’s pressure on state insurance regulators to consider factors related to the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) movement. In a letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the senators contended that the Federal Insurance Office has improperly sought to influence state-level authorities and insurance firms to consider climate risk.

The senators expressed concern that the Federal Insurance Office’s data collection effort, which seeks to determine which insurance coverage areas are most susceptible to climate-related risks, could result in state insurance regulators and insurers feeling coerced into adopting one-size-fits-all climate-risk mitigation policies. The senators argued that this could violate more than a century of precedent in which insurance is regulated by individual states rather than the federal government.

The letter also cited a recent veto from President Joe Biden that overturned a resolution to end a Labor Department rule which permits retirement fiduciaries to consider climate change and other ESG factors when making investment decisions. Skeptics of the ESG movement contend that the philosophy intermixes political causes in a manner that compromises or distracts from profitability.

Sen. Manchin, who faces re-election next year in a broadly conservative state, was one of only three Democrats in Congress to support the resolution. He has also threatened to oppose every nominee sent to the Environmental Protection Agency until power plant rules are reversed.