Alex Epstein Profile picture
Jan 18 12 tweets 5 min read
Breaking: A previously-unreleased pro-oil/gas letter sent by @BlackRock to Texas lawmakers and oil/gas executives reveals that the company is simultaneously 1) trying to gain status by supporting anti-oil/gas net zero goals, and 2) trying not to lose any pro-oil/gas investors.
🧵
BlackRock's Larry Fink is the #1 leader in the financial world for the economically baseless idea that the global economy should and will be net-zero by 2050. This idea would mean the rapid and total or near-total destruction of the oil and gas industry.
alexepstein.substack.com/p/the-esg-move…
In response to BlackRock and others advocating anti-oil-and-gas "net zero" policies, TX pension funds have started refusing to do business with anti-oil/gas institutions. BlackRock's response: a covert PR campaign to tell TX lawmakers and oil execs that it's very pro oil/gas!
Reading BlackRock's PR letter to TX lawmakers and oil execs, you would think that BlackRock has been a public champion of oil and gas--instead of the #1 advocate for "net zero" policies that necessitate the near-term destruction of oil and gas and have already slashed investment.
In his 2021 Letter to CEOs, Larry Fink said BlackRock is "committed to supporting the goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner"--which means "emissions need to decline by 8-10% annually between 2020 and 2050."
This would obviously destroy the oil/gas industry.
The BlackRock-led "net zero" ESG movement is a major cause of oil/gas investment declining dramatically, leading to unnecessarily high prices. From 2011-2021, oil/gas exploration investments declined by 50%. Less investment = less supply = higher prices.
alexepstein.substack.com/p/the-esg-move…
BlackRock's TX letter repeatedly and validly praises oil and gas companies--e.g., "these companies play crucial roles in the economy" and warns against rapid elimination. But such thoughts and warnings were totally absent from Larry Fink's ultra-influential 2021 Letter to CEOs.
Larry Fink's 2021 Letter to CEOs was pure climate catastrophism and "net zero" fantasy--to the point that his only comment about China, which was and is rapidly increasing its fossil fuel use, was to praise China's "historic commitments to achieve net zero emissions"!
Larry Fink's 2022 Letter to CEOs should have
1) Explicitly acknowledged the immense value of oil/gas and the peril of rapid elimination and
2) Explicitly acknowledged and apologized for BlackRock's role in causing today's oil/gas underinvestment and shortages.

It does neither.
Instead of acknowledging oil/gas's immense value and apologizing for BlackRock's role in today's energy shortages, Larry Fink's 2022 letter makes a trivializing reference to their value and does not even mention today's energy crisis, let alone reflect on BlackRock's culpability.
Here is the full letter that BlackRock circulated among TX lawmakers and oil/gas executives.

While I am the first to release this letter, I am not breaking any laws/confidentiality in doing so.

Note: BlackRock mislabeled the year as 2021 instead of 2022.
industrialprogress.com/blackrock/
Texans and others shouldn't be fooled by BlackRock's PR campaign to pretend to be big supporters of oil and gas while leading the "net zero" policy push that will destroy oil and gas--and, as a result, the global economy and standard of living.
alexepstein.substack.com/p/the-esg-move…

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More from @AlexEpstein

Jan 6
ESG poses as a moral and financially savvy movement. In reality it is an immoral and financially ruinous movement that is destroying the free world's ability to produce low-cost, reliable energy. This prevents poor countries from developing and threatens America's security.

🧵
Over the last 5-10 years, "ESG"--standing for Environmental Social Governance--has gone from an acronym that virtually no one knew or cared about, to a cultishly-embraced top priority of financial regulators, markets, and institutions around the world.
The preposterous financial pretense of "ESG investing" is that the promoters of it have so accurately identified universal norms of long-term value creation--Environmental norms, Social norms, and Governance norms--that imposing those norms on every company is justified.
Read 28 tweets
Dec 28, 2021
This Holiday season I have contributed $500 each to 5 crucial pro-energy organizations: @ceidotorg, @IERenergy, @envprogress, @spikedonline, and @AynRandInst.

Here’s why I’ve contributed to each one.
👇
Why I I contributed to @ceidotorg: This organization has for years been taking courageous, principled stands for energy freedom and against climate catastrophism.

One realm they excel in is the catastrophist dominated legal realm. Courageous @Chris_C_Horner does great work here.
Why I contributed to @IERenergy: This organization has a track record of principled, pro-liberty positions and disseminating extremely useful, precise information.

IER's founder, Robert Bradley Jr., “discovered” me in 2009 and told me I could be an energy thought leader.
Read 6 tweets
Dec 28, 2021
The movie is the comet.

#DontLookUp uses talented actors and the world's biggest distribution channel (@netflix) to promote a deadly analogy between fossil fuels and an Earth-destroying comet.

In fact, the movie's goal of rapidly eliminating fossil fuels is "the comet."

THREAD
Don't Look Up is an allegory about fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are represented by a "planet-killing" comet.

Politicians, media, and corporations refuse to "look up," see the comet, and take simple steps to stop it.

The lesson: "look up" and stop using fossil fuels, already.
Equating fossil fuels and "the comet" is backward for 3 reasons:
1. Fossil fuels' CO2 emissions are not a "planet-killing" threat.
2. Fossil fuels actually make the planet, including climate, livable.
3. Stopping fossil fuels would make the Earth unlivable for billions.
Read 13 tweets
Dec 23, 2021
"The Sum of All Energy Fears," @FreemanWSJ's excellent new column, explains:
1) How opposition to fossil fuels and nuclear in Europe is leading to disastrous price increases and security problems. 2) Our leaders' now-wavering commitment to emulate Europe.
wsj.com/articles/the-s…
"The people who work for U.S. voters haven’t stopped trying to enact another half a trillion dollars of spending to discourage the use of fossil fuels, but they are now signaling they understand how much we still need such fuels."
@FreemanWSJ
"Oil company executives have become openly frustrated with a Biden administration that spent months shunning the industry, only to start urging in recent weeks that it produce more oil to alleviate rising gasoline prices."
@FreemanWSJ
Read 4 tweets
Dec 20, 2021
Build Back Better supporters are claiming that @Sen_JoeManchin has destroyed our country's future by opposing BBB.

In fact, he has *protected* our country's future by preventing an unprecedented destruction of our energy industry--the industry that powers every other industry.🧵
Here's why Build Back Better's goal of 80% "clean electricity" by 2030 would mean going from 12% unreliable solar+wind to a catastrophic 50% solar+wind in 8 years.
alexepstein.substack.com/p/talking-poin…
Here's why Build Back Better's 10-year extension and increase of solar and wind subsidies would drive more and more reliable power plants off the grid, lead to skyrocketing prices and frequent blackouts.
alexepstein.substack.com/p/talking-poin…
Read 6 tweets
Dec 14, 2021
The media and government are portraying a tragic tornado as a symptom of unprecedented climate disaster that eliminating fossil fuels will save us from—even though there is no tornado trend, and we have achieved unprecedented safety from climate thanks to fossil fuels.

THREAD
Is the recent, deadly tornado in Kentucky a symptom of unprecedented climate disaster? The only scientific way to answer this question is to look for long-term trends in dangers from storms and other climate disasters. And if we do, we find that storm deaths are declining.
Has global warming been causing a disastrous increase in tornado frequency or intensity? Here's the data for the continental US, the most tornado-prone area on the planet, since the advent of comprehensive doppler-radar. There is no trend in tornado frequency or intensity.
Read 18 tweets

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