Gavin Newsom Keeps Making Mistake After Mistake – In yet another sacrifice to the environmentalist gods, California is considering holding corporations more accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions and report their risks from climate change.
This move, the state Legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom claim, will ensure that corporations walk their talk and live up to any public claims they make about being champions of the environment.
There are two bills that have already won Senate approval. One would force about 5,300 U.S. corporations earning more than $1 billion and doing business in California to annually report their global emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to climate change.
Another would require more than 10,000 companies with revenues exceeding $500 million to detail how climate change poses financial risks to their operations, not just in California, but around the world.
These bills would force companies to reveal their complete carbon footprint, even the emissions coming from the consumers who use their products.
According to CalMatters, a non-partisan research operation focusing specifically on California policy, “the laws would inevitably lead to highly publicized “top polluters” lists that make major corporations more accountable — and uncomfortable — since their full role in causing climate change and its impact on their finances would be exposed.”
Gavin Newsom and The Shame Game
Gavin Newsom and his democratic allies have created regulations that are nothing more than public shaming of corporations.
Democrat Senator Scott Weiner from San Francisco calls it “basic transparency.” I call it a colossal waste of time and money.
It’s interesting to watch politicians like him call for the public stoning of all who emit even a smidge over the decreed amount of CO2. Yet when it comes to calling out poor habits of obese people, it’s ‘fat shaming’ that must be immediately squelched.
Victims held on the pedestal of martyrdom should never be shamed, according to progressives. Only those damn greedy, good for nothing corporations who are single handedly destroying the earth. The same companies that account for most of California’s tax revenue.
Also of note: California is responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gases.
Cost Benefit Analysis
This is yet another example of progressive policy that sounds lovely yet fails to take into account the true costs of complying with and enforcing such regulation.
Bradley Van Engelen, a CalChamber lobbyist commented on the bills.
“Reporting regimes are kind of the wild west of the climate policy world. These reports aren’t free, it’s not like you just get to press ‘control P’ and have a report.”
But that’s exactly how many politicians think. Just put in place the policies that make us look good and get us re-elected and we’ll figure out how to pay for it later … or not.
ESG
The newest legislation is essentially an outgrowth of ESG – Environmental, Social, and Governance – practices which evaluate corporations based on their environmental and social impact.
Don’t display rainbows in your retail window in the month of June or employ the right amount of diversity hires? That’s a demerit.
Still using plastic straws? Down the chute you go.
Comply with all of the demands of these new religious doctrines? Up the ladder you climb.
Large investment companies, such as Black Rock, increasingly judge companies based on their ESG scores, known as “sustainable investing.”
Which would explain why corporations will sacrifice efficiency and even their own consumer base (Bud Light, anyone?) to adhere to this new model of virtue, despite it often being counterproductive or detrimental to their bottom line.
ESG forces companies to base their success on a set of rules and parameters that are constantly shifting as opposed to maximizing shareholder value.
It’s a noble cause to consider the well-being of all aspects of a business’s transactions rather than just the economic bottom line. From the people that work in the office to the impact a final good or service has on the environment, ESG aims to improve the social and environmental welfare of all, not just the bank accounts of a few.
However, the reason shareholder value has historically been the standard for corporate success rather than stakeholder welfare is because dollars are easier to measure than “goodness.” It’s easier to measure the costs – usually high – of the increasing number of policies corporations must comply with, but harder to gauge the benefits.
This legislation demonstrates the constant tension in public policy. To what extent do we force people – or corporations – into noble behavior in the name of the greater good? Can government legislate morality and who is the ultimate arbiter of virtue?
I don’t have a simple answer for these questions, but I know what the answer isn’t: the policies that continually come out of California.
Jennifer Galardi is the politics and culture editor for 19FortyFive.com as well as opinion writer. She has a Master’s in Public Policy from Pepperdine University and produces and hosts the podcast Connection with conversations that address health, culture, politics, and policy. In a previous life, she wrote for publications in the health, fitness, and nutrition space. In addition, her pieces have been published in the Epoch Times and Pepperdine Policy Review. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter.
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