Crypto News: BlackRock's campaign to win over the GOP

Today's newsletter looks at BlackRock's effort to smooth out tensions with Republican politicians after being criticized for years for talking up environmental, social and governance investing. Read more below, or get the full story on Bloomberg.com. For unlimited access to climate and energy news, please subscribe.

BlackRock's red state campaign

By Saijel Kishan

Late last month, 800 or so people took their seats at the Black Tie & Boots Gala, a celebration of conservative politics in deep red Texas.

The sponsor at table No. 15: BlackRock Inc., Republicans' biggest target on Wall Street.

It's no accident that the giant money manager was at the fete held by the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute, held down the street from the Texas State Capitol in Austin.

Even before Donald Trump returned to the White House, BlackRock was on the move. Its play: to soothe, and smooth, tense relations with GOP politicians across the country after being pilloried for years for talking up environmental, social and governance investing styles, or ESG.

From Indiana to Utah, West Virginia to Tennessee, BlackRock has dispatched emissaries to ingratiate itself with Republicans, who've lambasted the firm and many of the country's largest banks and money managers for pressing a liberal agenda on American businesses.

It's been five years since BlackRock Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink extolled the virtues of a greener planet and displacing fossil fuels in his annual missives, enraging Republicans in the process. More recently, the company has been dialing back. It's quit climate groups and drastically reduced support for shareholder proposals designed to make corporate America greener and more diverse. And Fink no longer utters the letters ESG. These days, he prefers to talk about retirement goals rather than net zero goals.

Larry Fink Photographer: F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg

In Texas, where Trump loyalist Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general, is leading a probe and lawsuit against BlackRock and other financial firms, the money manager has run social-media ads featuring cowboys, wildcatters and twangy rock 'n' roll to showcase its oil-patch bona fides.

Only last week, Fink — the billionaire who the GOP has sought to paint as the face of a "liberal" Wall Street — was showing off a "Make Energy Great Again" wristband at an energy conference in Houston, Oil City USA.

No corporation wants to be a target for the politicians running Washington and many state houses across the nation. The years-long attack has taken a toll on BlackRock, as it got swept up in investigations, blacklisted in states, and faced lawsuits and plain-old bad PR. Texas and West Virginia have restricted doing business with BlackRock, along with other firms. Indiana and Mississippi have taken legal action. Since Trump stormed back in November, loyalists have renewed their attacks on ESG more broadly.

Will BlackRock's red state campaign work? Read more on what its clients are saying on Bloomberg.com.

Texas-sized lawsuit

$660 million

Greenpeace has been ordered to pay more than this much in damages to Energy Transfer Partners after the Texas-based oil company accused the environmental group of defamation in connection with protests against an oil pipeline almost a decade ago. Greenpeace said it will appeal.

Wary of US energy assets

"It will most likely give us, and I'm sure other investors, a bit more pause for thought about the very, very specific risks."

Jordan Kraitan

Head of infrastructure and investments at Australian pension fund Cbus Super, which invests in solar farms in California and Arizona

Some of Australia's largest pension funds are taking a cautious approach to investments in US energy assets due to policy uncertainty for renewable and fossil fuel projects.

More from Green

More than a dozen countries took part in informal talks, organized by Norway, aimed at unblocking negotiations to stem a global wave of plastic pollution, which scientists warn could have major public health consequences if left unchecked.

Nations that joined the talks in Oslo on Monday and Tuesday included China, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, France, Indonesia, Japan and the European Union. India, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were invited but did not attend.

A new round of United Nations-backed talks for a global plastic treaty will be held in Geneva in August. Previous treaty negotiations were obstructed by a small group of oil producers, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, who objected to attempts to limit global plastic production and consumption. Success may hinge on a few countries — India, South Africa, Brazil and particularly China, which has a massive petrochemical sector but is increasingly concerned about plastic's health impacts.

"What we are working now is to find that landing zone and the compromise that can bring an agreement" at the Geneva talks, Norwegian Climate Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen said in an interview. "A lot of countries now really want to step up and demonstrate that the multilateral system is actually working."

Photographer: Nipah Dennis/Bloomberg

Australia is betting big on green hydrogen. The government has awarded as much as A$814 million ($516 million) in funding to a green hydrogen project, even as global confidence in the clean technology wavers.

Deep-sea miners are set to dig for critical minerals. As companies seek to extract critical minerals used in EV batteries and other green technologies from the deep sea, a showdown is underway over when and whether to allow mining of untouched, biodiverse ecosystems.

Climate activists are gearing up for this year's AGMs. One group, Follow This, is calling for investors in BP Plc to vote against the reappointment of Chairman Helge Lund at next month's annual general meeting, in a public rebuke to the company's recent pivot back toward oil and gas.

Worth a listen

Water scarcity is no longer a distant threat: By 2030, fresh water demand is expected to outpace supply by 40%. The effects of water stress will be felt in industries from agriculture to e-commerce, putting up to $70 trillion of global GDP at risk, according to the World Resources Institute. Bloomberg Intelligence researcher Melanie Rua is the co-author of a new report on water scarcity. She joins Zero to discuss just how much financial impact companies are already seeing as a result of this issue– and what measures they might take to mitigate it.

Listen to the full episode and learn more about Zero here. Subscribe on Apple or Spotify to stay on top of new episodes.