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By Guest Blogger Doug Rowat
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It was a mess.
When the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska in March 1989 it spilled almost 11 million gallons of crude oil into the pristine waters off Prince William Sound, contaminating almost 1,300 miles of shoreline. It reigned supreme as the worst oil spill in US history until the Deep Water Horizon disaster overtook it in 2010.
Despite Exxon being found negligent on several counts and spending several billion in cleanup costs; from an investor perspective, environmental disaster or not, it was simply the cost of doing business. No major shareholders demanded significant change, individual employees were scapegoated, the company remained enormously profitable and the Valdez itself, with its flawed single-hull design, was even patched up and put back into service.
But such indifferent attitudes towards the environment have shifted. The Economist recently highlighted the changing oil & gas investor landscape:
For many years the bosses of Europe’s oil and gas firms have been forced to appease the green lobby. In contrast, until very recently, America’s supermajors were unrepentant climate-change deniers.
No more. Activist investors are taking America’s energy giants to task over carbon emissions. At ExxonMobil’s shareholder meeting…a coalition of investors will try to put four green-tinged directors on its board to promote a lower-carbon strategy of the sort espoused by European rivals. On the same day Chevron, America’s second biggest oil producer, will face proposals for stiffer climate targets at its annual meeting.
The activists have enlisted powerful allies, including CalPERS and CalSTRS, public sector pension funds worth $700bn combined.
Also add powerhouses BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard to the list of investors demanding reform at ExxonMobil. These three have enormous clout—collectively owning 21% of ExxonMobil shares. How times have changed.
But these shifting attitudes involve more than just environmental concerns. A comprehensive environmental, social and governance (ESG) approach to investing is gaining massive traction. Investors are demanding that all of these criteria be examined so that they have confidence that a company’s prioritizing not just environmental sustainability, but also fair labour practices, worker safety, consumer protection, rational executive compensation, conflict-free director appointments, financial transparency, diversity, inclusion and so on.
How do we know these factors are important to investors? Follow the money. According to TrackInsight, global ESG ETF assets grew 223% in 2020 to reach a new AUM record of US$190 billion. And the momentum from last year has continued. Currently, global ESG ETF AUM sits at more than US$260 billion. In Europe, 50% of net ETF inflows are now in ESG ETFs. All of this, of course, is the logical extension of the massive amounts being spent globally in ESG areas. Fidelity reports, for example, that there has been US$3.7 trillion in new pledged ‘green’ stimulus just since the start of Covid and nearly US$7 trillion will be required annually in clean energy infrastructure spending to meet the Paris Agreement decarbonization goals.
Global growth of ESG ETFs
Source: TrackInsight
Now, you can be socially ‘woke’ and hug all the trees you want, but if a focus on ESG doesn’t make you more money then what’s the point? However, evidence is building that an ESG-focussed portfolio will do just that: outperform. Credit Suisse, for instance, examined the ESG equity space based on MSCI’s ESG ratings—the ESG gold-standard scorecard at the moment—and concluded that “over the past 5 years, high ESG companies have outperformed across regions, size, styles, and sectors, 3.9% annually in the S&P 500 and 4.9% for EAFE.”
And if you think that the outperformance was all due to an underweight in fossil-fuel producers, which have, of course, lagged over the past five years, think again. The biggest driver of the outperformance was actually the “S” in ESG:
Relative ESG returns by theme – S&P 500
Source: Credit Suisse
Consumers and investors both care passionately about the “S”. Is it any wonder then that S&P Global Market Intelligence recently reported that when Walmart announced last year after several mass shootings that it would restrict the types of firearm ammunition it sells that “people were more likely to shop at Walmart, on average, after the change was announced.” And with a President Biden appointment now running the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) it should also come as no surprise that the SEC is planning new rules that will force publicly traded companies to disclose more workforce data including workforce diversity, part-time versus full-time workers and employee turnover.
Simply put, ESG isn’t a fad. It’s here to stay.
And if you need more proof, Pope Francis this week launched a Vatican ecology initiative urging Catholics, and Catholic groups and businesses (numbering about 1.3 billion people globally) to reduce their carbon footprint and build sustainable enterprises over the next seven years. The Vatican itself has nearly eliminated single-use plastics and recycles almost all of its trash. As Pope Francis said this week, nothing “authorizes us to make irresponsible use of the goods God has given us.”
The world has come a long way since its figurative shoulder-shrug following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. And when it comes to ESG investing, the world may literally now be, to quote Elwood Blues, “on a mission from God.”
Doug Rowat, FCSI® is Portfolio Manager with Turner Investments and Senior Vice President, Private Client Group, Raymond James Ltd.
83 comments ↓
Those activists also ended up with two XOM board seats!
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/26/engine-no-1-gets-at-least-2-candidates-elected-to-exxons-board-in-win-for-the-activist.html
Any hints on “TI Brain Trust-approved” ESG ETFs?
I only know about Juan Valdez.
Another reader of ‘The Economist’….
Join the club Ponzie… learn to read without moving your lips.
For those crucifying Amazon as the most heinous slave-labour camp since the Gulag Archipelago…
https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/linkedin-names-amazon-no-1-company-where-americans-want-to-work?utm_source=pd&utm_medium=di&utm_campaign=gj21&utm_term=mb&utm_content=news_mb_di_fhr__2
Fun fact: Valdez, Alaska is pronounced ‘Valdeez’
Like the NS covid chief says, “If you are wondering about a loop hole, you are probably cheating.”
Do the right thing. Be ethical. Be the change.
I asked my portfolio dog to invest me in this way.
(I had written “no Amazon please” among other instructions)
The very first ETF on the list he invested me in has Amazon in it. Hoo boy. Profit over ethics on the very tippy top of the list!
It is going to take a long long time to cure Planet A….
Meanwhile, lets count money!
Look Garth, a fan perhaps echoes your Friday post.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-amplify-i-want-no-part-of-canadas-broken-real-estate-market/
I see someone else listens to the Rational Reminder podcasts. Good choice Ryan ;) This past week was great.
Profits come at the price of favourable resource access, paid off politicians allowing corporate exemptions, indifference to environmental issues in countries that allow it, exploitation of work force, list is long.
I looked at my iPhone the other day and wondered about the person who put it together. About their life. About waking up each day to assemble iPhones for 12 hours a day for slave labour wages. It made me sad.
ESG is just like greenwashing. While the machine continues to cause harm to people, environment, justice.
The older and hopefully wiser I get the more I realize how true the phrase “money is the root of all evil” is. And yet we all want more of it. Ain’t that something.
#138 Sail Away on 05.29.21 at 1:10 am
The crux of the biscuit is… Tesla is only partially about cars:
https://youtu.be/x3aqWJO4Rso
—
That’s a nice ad. Do the numbers. If TSLA captures that entire market, it will double its revenue in 6 years. Yet that would leave it with half the revenue of Ford assuming Ford doesn’t grow in that time.
Then consider that TSLA is already battery constrained (why it claims to not yet be building the khyberdonk) how will one business not cannibalize the other?
None of this justifies a $600B market cap.
Elections have been suspended? Linked from a scuzzy Youtube channel. CV did that too…are you surprised?
Yes at 15:17 in this Parl stream they state it.
https://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20210525/-1/35470
—–
As I suspected:
#3 TurnerNation on 05.26.21 at 2:07 pm
T2 for life. Then T3. There will be no more elections. And/or ones not tainted with bogus ‘mail in ballots’.
This went oh-so-well in Newfoundland, the perfect isolated & homogeneous test zone didn’t it?
Is there nothing CV cannot do???
https://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/house-of-commons-adop
—–
— Look this country has been divided up among the international crime lords. Each piece of Kanada as been given a dictator – to support the extractionist ways. Land, Resources.
One regional dictator creates curfews. The other a bubble splitting family/friends. The other bans sale of toys and ‘non essentials’ at Christmastime. The next one band intra-provincial travel. The sick kamp commandants are playing with us.
I’m not kidding. Each one is free to run their open air kamp as they see fit. And each one is brutal.
You know why they play up the 70, 80, 85% numbers? Some say – and I cannot prove – that the contracts signed with the big companies specify this figure – by contract. And our tax dollars are used to sell this compliance. Money money money.
#6 Wrk.dover on 05.29.21 at 10:21 am
Yep. They all have TSLA as well. Utterly fails at SG
DELETED
Royal Dutch and BP are both investing billions in green energy…but a Dutch court ruled it’s not fast enough (they are way ahead of their US peers)
Does that mean we all end up getting our oil from places with worse environmental records? How does that help?
Most of these ESG ETFs have an ADR of less then 1%. So if you like to see you money grow at a snails pace, then go for it. I’m all for voting with your money for the world you want and supporting companies that do good things. But from an investment perspective, for me anyways these ESG ETFs are a waste of time.
#10 Faron on 05.29.21 at 11:00 am
#138 Sail Away on 05.29.21 at 1:10 am
The crux of the biscuit is… Tesla is only partially about cars:
https://youtu.be/x3aqWJO4Rso
———
That’s a nice ad. Do the numbers. If TSLA captures that entire market, it will double its revenue in 6 years. Yet that would leave it with half the revenue of Ford assuming Ford doesn’t grow in that time.
Then consider that TSLA is already battery constrained (why it claims to not yet be building the khyberdonk) how will one business not cannibalize the other?
None of this justifies a $600B market cap.
———
Yawn. Successful people work with the world as it is while the continually aggrieved waste their productive mojo gnashing their teeth in fruitless anguish.
@#9 Ethics
“I looked at my iPhone the other day and wondered about the person who put it together. About their life. About waking up each day to assemble iPhones for 12 hours a day for slave labour wages. It made me sad.”
++++
Well.
Even the workers in China are fed up with the “996” work week.
(9am to 9pm, 6 days a week).
More and more Chinese graduates are opting to apply for govt jobs.
Seems the low pay is off set by job security, affordable ( subsidized) govt housing accommodations and pensions.
25,600 govt job postings received 1 million applications….
@#13 Cherry Bombed
Deleted
+++++
Yo CeeBee.
Going for the all time “Most Deleted” award ?
hmmmm
Looks like inflation is starting to bite…..
https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news/burnaby-developer-self-financing-start-of-mega-tower-to-lower-soaring-costs-3815648
Watching financials closely. XLF.US trying and as yet failing, to break through,
—–
Money money money:
.Quarantine hotel measures sticking around for now as Ottawa consults with provinces (cbc.ca)
Life in Kanada as we prepare for the Xth wave and the ____ Variant:
— Life in the N.S. camp: Comrades if you would only Follow the Rules and stay in your Health Prefecture, under the watchful eye of your Block Captain things will be much easier for your family. Who are your collaborators? Will you sign this confession of your misdeeds against the State?
https://www.saltwire.com/nova-scotia/news/local/anglers-charged-for-leaving-hrm-100585072/
Three Halifax men were charged under the Health Protection Act Wednesday for leaving their municipality to go angling. The men, aged 39, 46 and 47, had left the Halifax Regional Municipality in violation of the law
Buy Pay your taxes!!!
— Life in the Manitoba camp: Children’s playground is fenced off:
https://i.redd.it/t6maqjar20271.jpg
— Live in the Ontario camp: boat launches are fenced off.
https://twitter.com/towhey/status/1398042578797408259
— – Dolce: The science is different up here, it just now changed.
CTV News @CTVNews
National vaccine panel now says second shots should be given ‘as soon as possible’
I’m glad people are investing with their heart & not their brain. Leaves more Alpha for the rest of us.
This too shall pass. Oil prices are at their highest in 7 years and covid is about to be put to bed.
#3 crowdedelevatorfartz on 05.29.21 at 10:00 am
Another reader of ‘The Economist’….
Join the club Ponzie… learn to read without moving your lips.
——————-
Had a subscription for over 20 years.
Got tired of their British Expats bias.
Remember, they called Vancouver “best place on earth”.
Speaking of “Eco-Disaster”, anyone paying attention to the destruciton of Taiwan’s eco-system as TSMC forges full speed ahead on their microchip production?
Their facility snorfles through 148,000 Litres of water per day(that is polluted and contaminated upon its return to nature). The electricity consumption has not been made public…
LOL – get those “4 bys” off the road, you nature destroying red necks! No more vacations, right to freedom of movement has to be locked down because we’ve got to save the environment.
Now go buy yourself a computer so you can interact with the world from your kennel!
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Taiwan-hit-by-triple-blow-of-drought-blackouts-and-COVID-surge
https://apnews.com/article/apple-inc-taiwan-health-coronavirus-pandemic-technology-3f4b9cc9dc14b3726d6efc1b01cf385b
https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/24/tsmc_drought/
https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/examining-the-environmental-impact-of-computation-and-future-of-green-computing/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-08/the-chip-industry-has-a-problem-with-its-giant-carbon-footprint
Hey Pope.
20K kids will starve to death today but you are focusing on cleaning the air?
:(
Still don’t gas up at Esso.
5 Jason on 05.29.21 at 11:27 am
… But from an investment perspective, for me anyways these ESG ETFs are a waste of time.
—-
There are now more than 700 ESG ETFs listed globally. They’re all a waste of time?
—Doug
@#24 The West
“Speaking of “Eco-Disaster”, anyone paying attention to the destruciton of Taiwan’s eco-system as TSMC forges full speed ahead on their microchip production?
+++
I’m sure China will do much better with the environment after they take over their rebel “province”.
As for Eco disasters…..been to the Ft Mac Site lately?
I hear the tailing ponds are “world class”.
#21 Ed on 05.29.21 at 11:55 am
I’m glad people are investing with their heart & not their brain. Leaves more Alpha for the rest of us.
—-
I just showed you there’s Alpha in ESG. Who to believe, “Ed” or Credit Suisse?
—Doug
Despite its TSLA holding, Horizon’s ETHI has done alright lately. You have to dig into these to detect greenwashing though. Utterly rampant.
Nice post Ryan.
Glad to hear the Pope has reduced plastic, and recycles.
Now all he has to do is lift the ban on birth control, to reduce and thousands of unwanted births.
If you want to talk climate change, and social responsibility, let’s talk about overpopulation.
Meanwhile there are fewer and fewer publicly traded companies and private equity growth is outpacing the growth of public markets. No surprise here. Money is like water and will always flow along the path of least resistance. With enough “S” we may see the day when public markets are abandoned altogether.
Just finished reading Mark Carney’s book “Value(S)”
It was time well wasted as I had previously read “The Great Reset” by Klaus Schwab.
Pierre Poilievre made mincemeat out of him the other day.
#17 crowdedelevatorfartz
Hardly a surprise that people want a better standard of living.
I’m going to repeat something I heard a wise man say in a sit down interview.
Hoarding is considered a mental disability and disorder and we don’t consider hoarding desirable behaviour. Except when the item hoarded is money. Then we idolize the hoarding.
Makes you see billionaires in a whole new light.
Not sure what light to look at billionaires who support 996. Or ones focused on some ego space project while oppressing employees.
We need an ETF for SIN stocks. Symbol SIN.
Smokes
Weed
Booze
Guns
Casinos
Who’s in with me on this? It’s a winner.
I wonder if there will be a counter-ESG ETF at some point. I’m not talking evil, like a tobacco-firearms-forced labour ETF, but necessary commodities that are out of favour with the ESG crowd. Seems like an alternate fund for raising large amounts of capital – not mining junior exchanges – may be appealing for companies who’s fundamental core business is both essential and out of fashion, say fossil fuels and metals mining. May be spurned by the Fidelity and Vanguard’s of the world, but if the return was good there should be a way to tap into this.
12: Faron :I see you are a big believer in Gordon Johnson.
A lot of Tesla Hedge Fund Shorts have turned billions into millions .Have at it !! Keep up the good work.
https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/05/24/tesla-bear-gordon-johnson-explains-his-price-target-of-67-per-share.html
Interesting post.
I was just saying to my husband this morning, when you watch the U.S. Republican party in their infinite stupidity doing nothing more than ensuring nothing gets passed, it will have to be up to the private sector to take up the big issues like gun violence and climate change.
Good for Walmart and all of the others stepping up.
#36 S.Bby on 05.29.21 at 2:17 pm
We need an ETF for SIN stocks. Symbol SIN.
Smokes
Weed
Booze
Guns
Casinos
Who’s in with me on this? It’s a winner.
————
Let me help you with that:
PM (smokes): 18% YTD + 5% Div
OLN (guns): 98% YTD (known as ‘the Biden boom’) + 1.62% Div
GH.TO (casinos): 26% YTD, no Div
BR.TO (booze): 30% YTD, no Div
WEED (weed, duh): -8%, no Div
My Sgt used to say ‘gin will make her sin’, but let’s go with ‘sin for the win’. Maybe do 50% bunnies and kittens and 50% sin to balance the karmic scale.
#9 Ethics on 05.29.21 at 11:00 am
The older and hopefully wiser I get the more I realize how true the phrase “money is the root of all evil” is. And yet we all want more of it. Ain’t that something.
=======================================
Except of course that isn’t even the correct phrase. If you’re gonna mount your “Ethics” high horse – and surely quoting the Bible qualifies? – then it’s kind of important to pontificate accurately.
It’s “For the LOVE of money is A root of all kinds of evil. SOME people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:10 if you care to check.)
Caps mine.
Just to point out that the quote does NOT say all money is bad all the time and all people who acquire it are also evil. It’s simply a caution against greed. The misuse of the saying to scold those with money – strangely, usually by those with less of it – is amusing. Pretty sure envy is no lesser a sin than greed.
I love having lots of money. But it isn’t about accumulation, it’s what money represents. Power – as in not having to work if I don’t want to or worry financially about small trifles like global pandemics. Choices – the ability to live how and where and the way I want without major constrictions. Freedom – to indulge both generosity and my own enjoyments without compromise. It’s certainly not about mindless hoarding. And I don’t feel particular pierced by grief over all this.
But then, I freely admit I’m evil, as I also enjoy burning massive amounts of hydrocarbons in all types of different machines. Ultimately though, it’s Garth’s fault because if I had never found his website and the benefits of B&D investing I’d probably have a lot less wealth. So I guess I’m actually a victim, since that’s the trendy thing to be these days.
Ok back to pondering hydraulic systems on the new ride.
High footprint FDX rolled out a 3 bicycle carbon-free publicity stunt with Mayor Tory. They still send their employees out saddled with record Covid-19 volumes in a fleet of 10 year+ diesel stinkers.
Reminds me of a song:
“What do you do with a drunken sailor…
Put him at the helm of an Exxon tanker”
#147 tkid on 05.29.21 at 12:34 pm
Trudeau is taking a page out of Harper’s playbook. Harper gave us a tax credit for renovations, and a sudden downturn in house prices reversed itself.
Now that housing is the main industry in Canada, Trudeau cannot afford to allow house prices to deflate or the economy will deflate as well. He doesn’t want to do a reno tax credit, or Harper will be talked about in the news. So he does a free-money-for-house-eco-projects, and gets to promote the environment, pump the economy, and get his name in the news.
——————-
See, Donnie G.
This is a thoughtful post.
Unlike your spiteful T2 bashing.
ESG, with S as Social…yes, we’re all more conscious of the importance of those factors in our personal and working lives.
So do we think Wal-Mart will stop taking out life insurance policies on all new hires (with Wal-Mart as the beneficiary) in the future?
#39 Grateful
Spoken like a true compliant Canadian.
#43 earthboundmisfit on 05.29.21 at 4:27 pm
Reminds me of a song:
“What do you do with a drunken sailor…
Put him at the helm of an Exxon tanker”
—-
As if often the case, the truth is more complicated. Exxon negligence, poor oversight and understaffing were the much more significant factors in the disaster.
—Doug
@#44 Ponzie’s Parliamentary Parody Pot
“Unlike your spiteful T2 bashing…..”
++++
Pot meet Kettle.
Exxon is being roasted by local Guyanese:
https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2021/05/29/engine-1s-success-with-exxon-is-good-news-for-guyana/
ESG is all very nice, but CO2 does not drive climate — water vapor is by far the most powerful greenhouse gas, capturing 98% of the heat available. Even doubling current levels of CO2 would have no measurable effect on global temperature, according to the laws of physics. A cleaner and safer environment is an excellent goal, but there is no correlation between CO2 and global temperature throughout history, hence there can be no causation.
“No major shareholders demanded significant change, individual employees were scapegoated, the company remained enormously profitable and the Valdez itself, with its flawed single-hull design, was even patched up and put back into service.”
Except that when they float the oil boats through that section now they tow a tug with a second crew that is powerful enough to stop the boat pretty quickly if it goes off course. Still not as safe as a pipeline would be.
——————————–
When I worked for a major O&G company, I used to call their efforts in solar and wind “green-washing”. I think the term still applies today. Even after 30 years of wind projects wind and solar still make up less than 4% of world energy consumption. If fact, it will be quite the feat if for now we can build wind fast enough to keep up with demand growth. The oil and gas in O&G isn’t going anywhere for a while. You can’t legislate thermodynamics.
But build them they will, as fast as they can. Why not? But what they are proposing is an absolutely vast project requiring a huge work force and mind boggling amounts of steel, copper, rare earths, and carbon fiber. It should be interesting to see how it goes.
And we still haven’t solved the storage problem so we still need natural gas co-gens on standby along with gas storage fields to fuel them.
But the alternative is to admit to ourselves our experiment with modern society comes with an end date. Nobody wants to admit that.
Sometimes I wonder if all the Ph.D’s in the think tanks have concluded 2050 is about when they figure we will run out of economically recoverable O&G, so that’s why they picked that year for a zero emission economy. But rather than say that, they are gong to try and build alternate energy sources and transform the economy before it happens.
#26 Ponzius Pilatus on 05.29.21 at 12:01 pm
Still don’t gas up at Esso.
————————
That’ll show em!
Thanks Doug,
For featuring ESG investment and how they are the future.
I worked for VanCity Credit Union when they were one of the first to offer Socially responsible investments.
There was a lot of skepticism and even ridicule among the employees.
The refrain was: You gotta be profitable before you can be socially responsible.
Turns out, VanCity proofed the naysayers wrong, and can call itself now as one of the founders of ESG investing.
To be accurate, VanCity’s model was a Dutch Bank (forgot its name, not ING).
#35 Ethics on 05.29.21 at 2:17 pm
#17 crowdedelevatorfartz
Hoarding is considered a mental disability and disorder and we don’t consider hoarding desirable behaviour. Except when the item hoarded is money. Then we idolize the hoarding.
Makes you see billionaires in a whole new light.
————————————-
I’ve said this before but apparently it bears repeating:
Billionaires don’t have money they have assets.
Amazon shares are not money. We look at how many x Amazon shares Bezos has time y the last price somebody paid for an Amazon share and conclude that Bezos has x times y money. But it would not be true unless he could sell all of his shares for y without crashing the price.
That is where the liquidity problem comes in with all this notional wealth. To turn all the billionaires and millionaires wealth into money somebody with that sort of cash would have to buy it all. Not even Dog has that sort of money.
In my experience the people seeking ESG investments are kinda sorta wanting to do something like they kinda sorta want to eat healthy and buy the product that says ‘low fat’ on the box without looking at what’s inside.
As always the financial industry is ready and willing to flog them beautiful lies based on their feelings for a few more basis points.
#41 BillyBob on 05.29.21 at 4:21 pm
#9 Ethics on 05.29.21 at 11:00 am
The older and hopefully wiser I get the more I realize how true the phrase “money is the root of all evil” is. And yet we all want more of it. Ain’t that something.
=======================================
Except of course that isn’t even the correct phrase. If you’re gonna mount your “Ethics” high horse – and surely quoting the Bible qualifies? – then it’s kind of important to pontificate accurately.
It’s “For the LOVE of money is A root of all kinds of evil. SOME people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:10 if you care to check.)
Caps mine.
——————————————
Thinking is hard. It’s like comparing the notional value of Bezos Amazon shares to the amount of money he has.
I think what happened to the phrase in question is that people without money heard “money – evil”, and that was good because they did not have money and now had a legitimate excuse to ignore the commandment “love thy neighbor as thyself”. But they weren’t going to hear “the love of money – evil” because they of course want some more but they don’t see themselves as evil because they don’t have any, just the love.
I wonder what happens when someone who thinks money is evil comes into some? Do they now self-identify as evil? And are there scales of evil depending on how much money you have? Different levels of hell?
Anyway I think the point Paul was making was valid. But it applies to Madoff not Bezos. It applies to thieves and muggers, not doctors and engineers.
#39 Grateful in Victoria on 05.29.21 at 3:11 pm
Interesting post.
I was just saying to my husband this morning, when you watch the U.S. Republican party in their infinite stupidity doing nothing more than ensuring nothing gets passed, it will have to be up to the private sector to take up the big issues like gun violence and climate change.
Good for Walmart and all of the others stepping up.
*********
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/democrats-used-filibuster-over-300-times-gop-once
Offered as an antidote to the smugly unaware or willfully misleading statement above.
Did you notice the Trojan Joe flipflop on the issue from 2005 to now?…yeah, that’s democrat integrity.
M57BC
#52 Nonplused on 05.29.21 at 7:12 pm
#26 Ponzius Pilatus on 05.29.21 at 12:01 pm
Still don’t gas up at Esso.
————————
That’ll show em!
————-
Nothing to do with showing them.
It’s about how you live your life.
I know the word “ethics” means little on this blog.
The question is:
How can you live with yourself?
There was a Seinfeld episode about that.
Emanuel Kant comes to mind.
#26 Ponzius Pilatus on 05.29.21 at 12:01 pm
Still don’t gas up at Esso.
————————————
Two weeks ago I sent in a online complaint to them. I asked that they stop giving out free plastic water bottles with a fill up. I’m getting tired of picking them up on the side of the highway every Sunday lately when I do my roadside cleanup. Free plastic water bottles with a fill up, how does that fit in to their ESG plan?
A member of the Muslim religion also has restrictions on certain investments.
Was fortunate enough to buy XEG at $4.30 last Sept, was sitting at 20 year lows… so I figured it had lots of upside, plunked $10,000 in there and she’s almost doubled. Hoping to see a little more upside yet then I’ll find something else long term. Very grateful it worked out!
#57 VicPaul on 05.29.21 at 8:12 pm
#39 Grateful in Victoria on 05.29.21 at 3:11 pm
Interesting post.
I was just saying to my husband this morning, when you watch the U.S. Republican party in their infinite stupidity doing nothing more than ensuring nothing gets passed, it will have to be up to the private sector to take up the big issues like gun violence and climate change.
Good for Walmart and all of the others stepping up.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/democrats-used-filibuster-over-300-times-gop-once
Offered as an antidote to the smugly unaware or willfully misleading statement above.
Did you notice the Trojan Joe flipflop on the issue from 2005 to now?…yeah, that’s democrat integrity.
M57BC
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“Offered as an antidote to the smugly unaware or willfully misleading statement above”
Here is the US Senate record of closure motions in 2020:
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/cloture/116.htm
Since you claim that #39 commenter is misleading, please enlighten us: which bill did not pass closure (filibuster) in 2020?
#12 Winterpeg
Thank you for stating the obvious. Our planet’s #1 challenge is over population. If that were our social focus all other challenges could be solved. Growth is our problem not our salvation. Thank you for blowing the whistle on green washers.
#58 Ponzius Pilatus on 05.29.21 at 8:14 pm
#52 Nonplused on 05.29.21 at 7:12 pm
#26 Ponzius Pilatus on 05.29.21 at 12:01 pm
Still don’t gas up at Esso.
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That’ll show em!
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Nothing to do with showing them.
It’s about how you live your life.
I know the word “ethics” means little on this blog.
The question is:
How can you live with yourself?
There was a Seinfeld episode about that.
Emanuel Kant comes to mind.
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I was referring to the fact that where the gas comes from has little to do with the name on the sign. The wholesale market is more about who has refineries in the area. But I suppose you are denying them a few pennies margin at the pump.
Not for one moment do I doubt what Doug has to say about the advancement of efforts to kill the fossil fuel industry. It’s a lot like progressive woke culture and identity politics in that both make accusations without realistic solutions or deep analysis.
Reminds me of planting mint or chives in your garden. Be careful, because once it gets established it’s hard to corral. ( Although I read today that the founder of BLM had to step down due to her real estate holdings. Not very ‘Marxist’.)
Everyone is entitled to their opinion on these matters. What some find annoying, (count the Jaguar in this group), is that those who are vehemently opposed to fossil fuels and want to turn off the switch today at midnight demonize those who work in those same and related industries, without acknowledging that those workers value nature and future prosperity for their children and families like everyone else.
We all want to see the stars at night and breathe clean air. This constant gibber jabber (especially about electric cars) doesn’t even begin to address the world wide applications and by-product use of fossil fuels.
It’s in everything you use and value in your everyday life, including your accessibility to your food.
NonPlused has contributed many posts to this blog that support this, and others have posted articles, etc.
I sometimes wonder what would happen if the energy industry just complied. Like Enbridge Line 5. Just shut it off. Not in May, but maybe December. Just do it. And when the phone begins to ring, don’t answer. Just let it ring.
Maybe we should just re-write the book on everything. Energy, territory, trade, whatever. Maybe cornflakes, dairy, or whatever we need might be on sale south of the border instead of within national borders. Some parts of Canada are expressing their desire to become known as a ‘Nation’. What’s good for the goose must be good for the gander.
Never mind the sentimentality. Let’s see if Fernie and the Kootenay Valley of British Columbia want to join up with Alberta. If La Belle Province becomes a ‘Nation’, then the ‘bubble’ on the Altlantic coast might become a bit more permanent. But that might work out because they might like to establish their own geographic identity and culture, despite some very unfortunate remarks read here recently about those who are from one part of the region versus another.
Who knows? What seems evident to me is that conversation isn’t civil anymore. It’s the ‘blame game’ 24/7. We’ll see how that works out in the current Peak Oil environment. People might like to examine the numbers on GDP, where goods are made and got, and where alliances lie. Just sayin’.
Should that be ‘alliances lay’? Or maybe ‘lie’ was on track anyway. I’m exhausted after a very trying week…
DELETED (Anti-vax)
#26 Ponzius Pilatus on 05.29.21 at 12:01 pm
Still don’t gas up at Esso.
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Heck, I barely use gas!
It’s lonely up here on the moral high ground.
#55 mark on 05.29.21 at 7:44 pm
In my experience the people seeking ESG investments are kinda sorta wanting to do something like they kinda sorta want to eat healthy and buy the product that says ‘low fat’ on the box without looking at what’s inside.
As always the financial industry is ready and willing to flog them beautiful lies based on their feelings for a few more basis points.
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With 700+ ESG ETFs on the market, not all of the ESG scorecarding will be perfect, but for most, the screening is stringent and the SEC is only going to increase the transparency. It’s not a ‘beautiful lie’, it’s a structural change. Look at what happened at Exxon this week—at least 2 directors ousted, maybe more.
—Doug
DELETED
In my 60 years of living I’ve seen the mentality of what is or isn’t acceptable change with the times. For example when I was a kid in the early 1970s a lot of people thought little of drinking and driving. In the 1970s and 1980s you were in the wrong if you complained about someone else smoking indoors in a workplace. In the late1970s and early 80s the mentality about drinking and driving changed, and about smoking indoors in the 1990s. A lot of people thought that if all smoking indoors was banned it would kill the restaurant and bar business. Well guess what? Before COVID came along they were doing just fine. Now, by sharp contrast smoking isn’t allowed anywhere on the Western University campus.
The mentality about the LGBT community has changed. I can recall most of society was quite homophobic in the 1970s and 1980s. Gradually but slowly society became more accepting. Looking back, it seemed we were at the tipping point when the show Will and Grace went on the air. Where are we now? Not only are medium size cities like London or Ottawa having Pride parades, but even smaller places like Kincardine or Steinbach, Manitoba having Pride parades in the last few years. The tipping point is so far away now I can hardly see it in the rear view mirror without binoculars.
Now let’s look at racism. While the Black Lives Matter movement has shown there’s still a lot of work to be done yet in fighting racism, I have noticed some changes over the years. I recall hearing a lot of racist jokes and racial slurs in the 1970s, 80s, and even in the 90s. You don’t hear anywhere near as much of it now, and a lot of the younger Millennials find such jokes and slurs offensive.
Now lets look at climate change. We’re now at a tipping point where at long last a lot of the population sees it as a serious issue. Is that because of Greta Thunberg? Not really, it’s more of a positive feedback loop where the changing mentality got her motivated to speak up, which further reinforces the changing mentality. Now, even The Pope is speaking up about the environment, that’s a first. There will continue to be stubborn sticks in the mud who will deny it, but most of the world is waking up to the idea climate change is real. We’re past the point of no return now, so get used to it. The corporate world is catching on and will have to factor it in to their decisions and practices, ESG is here to stay.
#65 the Jaguar on 05.29.21 at 9:20 pm
Who knows? What seems evident to me is that conversation isn’t civil anymore. It’s the ‘blame game’ 24/7.
I’ve noticed that too and have been thinking about it.
I think what is currently happening worldwide is everyone is sensing something is fundamentally wrong with our world’s direction and that something is going to break soon. Thus, everyone wants someone to blame for it. When something does break we will probably shift from blame and cancel culture to killing mobs like they did in the French Revolution(BLM and Antifa are just a dress rehearsal for now). That is what concerns me.
#121 crowdedelevatorfartz on 05.28.21 at 8:46 pm
@#116 Nonplused
“It’s $125 per window. They aren’t paying for the windows outright.”
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ahahahaha.
They’re reimbursing the GST on the windows!
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Now that you mention it, that’s about right. If you can get a triple pane window installed for $2,500 that is. Most of my windows are 4×4, so I think I might have trouble with that estimate.
It would have been so much simpler to have a “no GST” sale on high efficiency stuff and insulation. But noooo, first we have to have an “energy audit”. As if you can’t tell what needs to be done from a simple home inspection when you buy the house. I knew from just that that the furnace would need replacing at some point and there was room to stuff more insulation in the attic, but I don’t know about R50, maybe in the middle. Everyone knows triple pane is better than double pane by about a third, so if I win the lottery maybe I’ll look into it. But I didn’t need no energy audit to tell me the above.
And these things have diminishing returns, as does everything. If we index the heat loss for a single pane window at 1.0, then a double pane window is at 0.5, and a triple pane comes in at 0.33. Do they want us to go to 4 pane windows to achieve 0.25? At what point is it better to just get a wood stove?
As always, the government solution to a problem almost certainly makes it worse. All they had to do was mandate that all new windows are triple pane, as they already have with new home construction. Then wait. We didn’t need a whole new bureaucracy.
#132 Don Guillermo on 05.28.21 at 11:43 pm
#112 Nonplused on 05.28.21 at 8:08 pm
#42 Timmy on 05.28.21 at 2:48 pm
Trudeau was stupid enough to buy thr. Transmountain pipeline. Never underestimate his stupidity.
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I don’t think he had a choice. He had to buy Kinder-Morgan out since they had already spent billions under previous approvals
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Oh, he had a choice. He decided to regulate KM out of town. KM happily took the $$ and reinvested in Texas laughing all the way. Canadian taxpayers are the dolts again!
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Mark my words: Keystone XL and Line 5 will both be divested to American interests, Buffet or Kinder-Morgan perhaps. Then all regulatory issues will suddenly dissipate. We’ll still have Trans-Mountain and maybe Energy East if we get our heads out of our butts, but Canadian energy companies owning energy assets in the US is what is getting phased out, not the assets themselves.
This is what happens when a punter like Trudeau tries to mess with the big boys. He most definitely did not know what side of the toast his butter was on.
And how would it not be fair? We shut down Kinder-Morgan, bought them out, and then proceeded to build exactly what we wouldn’t let them, using the same drawings and easements (and workers, and pipe). Why shouldn’t they do us the same we did them?
The good news for Alberta is that the oil will eventually flow. Eventually. Alberta doesn’t really own the pipes anyway, never did, that’s more of an Ontario thing.
#38 R on 05.29.21 at 2:45 pm
No, I don’t like the guy as he’s an oil nut. @Keubiko deliverss very solid stock research and is TSLAQ. He’s also funny and Canadian.
Nobody knows exactly when Burry bought his TSLA puts, but it’s likely he turned millions into tens of millions if not hundreds. Enjoy your schlonkerklonk (I just can’t bring myself to say Cyberpluck) when you get it. You will be the most awesomest 12 year old on your block.
Thx for reminding me about 1989. Now, if we compare that to Trudeaus well documented Covid Incompetance that’s resulted in the deaths of 30,000 how does the Valdez incident stack up against that? Or weren’t the dead pristine enough to warrant notice? Recency bias…..much?
#72 Nonplused on 05.30.21 at 1:00 am
As always, the government solution to a problem almost certainly makes it worse.
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if Canadians haven’t realized by now that ALL levels of government are completely INCOMPETENT, SELF SERVING and CORRUPT… they never will
this past year, the handling of Covid should tell you that.
none of them can see beyond the next election and their pay cheques and pensions.
Hey @65 Jag.
Well written.
What I’m waiting to watch is the dirtying of the atmosphere by all those wanting rid of Oil just so they can go and “do” their 4x yearly vacations.
What a gift COVID has given the world – reduce greenhouse gasses by a good few percent by stopping the majority of flights. But both you and I know that we all love flying to different places and we both know that the airline industry will come “flying” back to life faster and higher than before.
There goes a gift that a hard-nosed PM who believed in the commitment to the Paris Accord would have accepted. Oh well, just sitting here on my deckchair watching the world go by…
#36 S.Bby
Smokes
Weed
Booze
Guns
Casinos
Who’s in with me on this?
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You mean all my hobbies are stocks too?
WHO KNEW!?!?
I’m in.
The Oracle is not a fan of ESG, and he’s all about the bottom line.
https://www.etftrends.com/esg-channel/buffett-berkshire-hathaway-brush-off-esg-proposals/
Related to yesterday’s post, but repeated here:
Conflict of Interest Anyone. By extrapolation 70% of politicians at all level of government, federal/provincial/municipal, own property. Making property price supportive rules is self-enriching, and arguing for taxation of hosing capital gains takes away from their perceived retirement nest egg.
On another note, Garth et al. Common misperception amongst commenters seem to be property taxes. Someone commented above that 30% higher prices means 30% higher property taxes. This is actually incorrect as property taxes are based on a city budget and allocated across the footprint based on property value. So if the city budget stays the same and everyone assessment goes up by 30%, there is no increase in property tax for anyone.
What does increase are all the transaction costs that are based on a percentage of price. Realtor commissions, land transfer tax and GST/PST if it applies.
#79 Sail Away on 05.30.21 at 10:30 am
The Oracle is not a fan of ESG, and he’s all about the bottom line.
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In this case, Buffett’s fighting the current. Investors are making the moral judgements, not the companies. Companies are simply being asked to disclose information and data. And they’re going to asked to do this a lot more in the future.
—Doug
I listened to Buffet’s press conference. I think he had 2 push backs:
1) It is the institutional investors, (especially Canadian pension funds) who are making the moral judgement (not all investors). The proposal was put to vote and was turned down. It’s like a strata council making rules that suit them. The rest of the owners don’t have the time, and don’t have a large voting block to do the same.
2) Having a uniform scorecard for a diverse group of holdings is difficult and does not add value.