De Blasio is boldly going where no man has gone before – filing a lawsuit against multiple worldwide oil and gas companies for their role in Hurricane Sandy’s devastation, health issues, and infrastructure destruction to his great New York City… Oh, but wait, he isn’t just suing the oil companies, he is targeting NYC pension funds in an effort to ‘divest’ their investment in fossil fuels and divert it to Climate Change issues. What?
BP, Conoco, Exxon, Chevron and Royal Dutch Shell are the major targets. Proving that they directly impacted climate change and caused harm to NYC specifically, is a rather uphill battle. But apparently one De Blasio and Company feel is possible and just might mitigate his ever defeated budget deficit.
According to the Budget Comptroller for NY, NYC is facing a deficit of as much as $7 billion as of March this year. According to the analysis, NYC could be facing a disaster scenario under the tutelage of De Blasio and he’s running scared with nowhere to turn to find the $$$$$. In addition, Trump’s new tax plan could cause a massive exodus as taxpayers seek more friendly places to park their money given the limitations on interest deductions will impact their itemized deduction caps. With some of the highest priced real estate in the country, mortgages are a mainstay. But the rationale was the deductibility of the interest. No more.
As a result, De Blasio is scrambling and this is the best scenario he could come up with while attempting to capitalize on an issue that is embedded in the Liberal agenda – Climate Change.
De Blasio’s threat to redirect NYC pension fund investments is a bit of a smokescreen given the fund has been in a massive overhaul for the past 3 ½ years when Scott Stringer took office and declared that the retirement system was “hanging by a thread”. At issue was the fact that the returns delivered by the fund were considered inadequate and well below the market. Implementing a comprehensive plan that Stringer estimated would take 5-10 years to become a powerhouse once again, cannot simply be ‘modified’ to coddle the whims of De Blasio. Fiduciary responsibilities dictate.
Two NGO’s are supporting the De Blasio move, Union of Concerned Scientists, which is the recipient of funding from George Soros, and 350.org, which is funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation and has partnered with Global Greengrants Fund, a Soros Open Society promotion. In fact, according to their Form 990, the only grant made by 350.org was to Global Greengrants Fund.
Climatic Change, a journal established by Michael Oppenheimer and Gary Yohe, published a study claiming that climate damages such as rising sea levels and increased temperatures are a direct result of products sold by such companies as Chevron and ExxonMobil. In addition, the Union For Concerned Scientists (Soros funded) has joined in the fray of qualifying finger pointing by claiming that: “We’ve known for a long time that fossil fuels are the largest contributor to climate change. What’s new here is that we’ve determined just how much specific companies’ products have caused the earth to warm and the seas to rise.”
The study suggests that all the major oil companies combined contributed to 10% of the global temperature increase between 1980 and 2010 and 4% of the rise in sea level. The study specifically provides Hurricane Sandy as an example of rising sea levels magnified by climate change causing roughly $2 billion in damage over what would have occurred had there been no rise in sea levels. The total estimated cost was $65 billion. How they can make monetary determinations is a bit stretched…and seems to have no supporting documentation.
So, who commissioned this report?
The lead author of the report was Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate science director at the Union for Concerned Scientists. Coincidentally, Gary Yohe, who assisted in this publication, is also a Member of the NYC Panel on Climate Change. Somewhat a conflict of interest?
Further conflicts include the fact that Michael Oppenheimer also founded, Climate Action Network which is aligned with Soros Fund Management and Christine Lagarde, of France’s Economic Ministry.
So why would Soros want to hit the wallets of oil and gas executives? Hitting the biggest oil giants, might give a boost to some of the smaller companies, like: Petroleo Brasilerosa, California Resources, Valvoline, Rice Energy, Targa Resources and Diamondback all of which were owned in Soros portfolio last year. Of course the hypocrisy doesn’t end there with Soros heavily invested in the Williams Pipeline company, and Columbia Pipeline which merged with Transamerica of the Keystone XL fame… Creating a profit while belying ethics is the Soros windfall.
Other cities and counties suing the oil giants include California’s Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, Oakland and Imperial Beach. All these cities and counties project a continued significant budget deficit now and in the coming years… and tapping climate change might fill the gap…
By the time any legal action is concluded, Soros will be well out of the oil and gas investments – an easy bet. Playing both sides, not unlike his play of Republicans and Democrats. “Anyone, Anyone”…