BASTASCH: Here’s How Woke Wall Street Is Gouging Americans At The Pump

For months now, President Joe Biden and the Democrats have tried to pin sky-high gas prices on an increasingly absurd list of boogeymen.

First, it was “Putin’s Price Hike” – except prices were rising before a single Russian tank rolled into Ukrainian-held territory. Then, they blamed the oil industry, and after that, Biden pointed the finger at greedy mom-and-pop-owned gas stations. Most recently, the president blamed obstructionist Republicans for Americans’ pain at the pump.

It’s a sadly predictable, and pathetic, attempt to cover up for their own radical, anti-fossil fuel agenda that’s killed pipelines, shuttered refineries and stymied oil and gas leasing. Biden campaigned on ending fossil fuels, and his policies have reflected that goal, setting the stage for the current energy crisis.

But here’s the thing — Biden didn’t accomplish this feat alone. He had the help of a cartel of woke investors and financial institutions, whose ultimate goal is to use the power of global financial markets to force the green transition upon all you peons who cling to your oil, guns and God. The sheer amount of capital pouring into “environment, social and governance” (ESG) funds is not only staggering, it’s breaking energy markets and Americans’ finances.

Don’t take my word for it — analysts at Goldman Sachs, a major ESG player, detailed in a little-noticed November 2021 report how there were “[over] $100 [trillion] of global assets under management have signed up to UN PRI and are implementing ESG metrics as part of their investment process.” UN PRI refers to a United Nations-backed green investment pledge that thousands of financial institutions signed onto.

The Goldman analysts continued: “This wave of ‘green’ investments is driving capital towards de-carbonization technologies… [t]his drives structurally higher commodity prices which can be viewed as an additional carbon tax.”

In other words, ESG is a tax on Americans. Just how big is this tax that no one voted for? Goldman Sachs pegged it at $80 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions. Now for the infuriating part — this tax is adding an extra 72 cents to a gallon of gas.

In other words, if not for the ESG crowd, the national average gas price would be well under $3.75 a gallon instead of $4.46 a gallon. Talk about price gouging!

Of course, this ESG tax has ripple effects across our economy, which is powered 80% by carbon dioxide-emitting fossil fuels. Everything Americans need to survive and thrive in some way relies on fossil fuels. Is it any surprise inflation hit 9.1% in June, a 40-year high?

But that’s not all! One month before Goldman Sachs admitted ESG was a de facto tax, was the Future Investment Initiative. At the conference, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink fretted “that outflows from the fossil-fuel industry may be overdone,” according to The New York Times.

Fink, who The Times says is “among the biggest advocates for Wall Street adopting E.S.G.,” went on to say: “We have these visions we could go from a brown world and we could wake up tomorrow there’d be a green world… That is not going to happen.”

You’d think all of this would at least raise some eyebrows on Capitol Hill or in the West Wing, right? After all, aren’t they worried about price gouging?

So, where’s Congress now? Why isn’t Biden sending threatening letters to Fink and friends? Where are all the tweets, naming and shaming the companies engaged in this massive, worldwide investing scheme?

You’re guess is as good as mine. Maybe it’s because Biden’s top economic adviser previously ran BlackRock’s “sustainable investing” arm? Maybe it’s because Fink’s old chief of staff now occupies the Treasury Department’s number two spot?

If there’s one thing journalism has taught me, it’s that politicians’ actions and motivations become a lot clearer when you follow the money.

Michael Bastasch is the managing editor for the Daily Caller News Foundation. 

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.