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Twenty-six financial officials from 21 states wrote to President Donald Trump on Tuesday urging him and his administration to review European Union (EU) climate rules applying to U.S. companies operating in Europe as part of his wider reassessment of trade relationships with other countries.
The financial officials asked Trump to have the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) open a probe of several EU rules that they say give European regulators too much discretion over the operations of U.S. companies doing business on the continent. They argue in their letter that the EU’s climate mandates have impacts that undermine their ability to protect the finances and investments of their own states. They also say that the Trump administration should consider reviewing those mandates in light of Trump’s executive order to reassess international environmental deals that “unduly or unfairly burden the United States.”
“While EU member states are key American trading partners and geopolitical allies, this partnership cannot come at the cost of subjecting American companies to unbounded regulatory requirements that will only weaken the economies of both Europe and the United States,” the letter reads. “By reaching into domestic business operations, the directives serve as a direct assault on American sovereignty.”
Specific policies highlighted in the letter include EU rules mandating a host of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) disclosures and broadly defining “materiality” in ways that may invite politicized interpretations of European regulators or tort litigation back in the U.S.
Additionally, the state financial officials pointed to requirements for green corporate transition plans and supply chain ESG disclosures that they say will impact the domestic operations of affected U.S. companies, though they also note that they would like USTR to probe “the overall European ‘Green Deal’ and related taxes, subsidies, and directives.”
“The EU directives, built on unscientific assumptions about the nature of climate change impacts and ignoring the reality that the world’s economy remains reliant on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, will force companies to incriminate themselves,” the letter states.
“Our aim is to enhance trade relations with the EU’s member states—some of our country’s strongest allies and best trading partners. The EU’s aggressive ESG agenda has crippled European own economic growth and threatens to undermine that of the United States,” the letter continues. “This is intolerable. We hope that strong action, including a Section 301 investigation, motivates the EU to reconsider its sustainability directives.”
A Section 301 investigation is a tool that the USTR can use under the Trade Act of 1974 to seek recourse and relief from other countries’ violations of trade deals or actions that unreasonably hurt American commerce, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, backed the financial officials’ call for an investigation into the EU’s climate directives in a Tuesday statement.
“In his first month in office, President Trump has kept his promises to the American people and is eliminating the rot that is ESG and woke capitalism from our institutions. But there is more to be done, these ESG-obsessed climate cartels will not stop pushing an activist agenda on Americans until President Trump’s policies are adopted by institutions,” said Hild. “Thank you to the state financial officers who are continuing to put pressure on these EU groups who are more obsessed with climate activism than good business practices. The Trump Administration should investigate and challenge all European programs that subject American companies to radical climate goals.”
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The post ‘Assault On American Sovereignty’: Red State Officials Urge Trump To Probe EU’s Corporate Climate Mandates appeared first on Energy News Beat.
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