The committee’s investigation centres around the “sufficiency of current antitrust laws to address collusive agreements to promote and adopt left-wing ESG goals”.
“Vanguard appears to have entered into collusive agreements to ‘decarbonise’ its assets under management and reduce emissions to net zero in ways that may violate US antitrust law,” Jordan said in the subpoena.
“To advance our oversight and inform potential legislation related to collusive ESG policies, the committee must understand how and to what extent Vanguard may have colluded to promote ESG-related goals.”
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The House committee had previously requested documents from Vanguard and Arjuna on 6 July 2023 and 1 August 2023, respectively, but said their responses had been “inadequate”. Vanguard produced 3,619 documents, which Jordan said was “far fewer than other entities”.
Yesterday (12 December), Bloomberg reported that the committee was also close to finalising subpoenas for BlackRock, Glass Lewis, State Street, and Institutional Shareholder Services.
The probe by the committee is the latest in a long Republican campaign against ESG investing, as multiple state governments have looked to punish or divest from firms that consider ESG in their investment process.
Biden uses veto to block anti-ESG investing bill
In March, US President Joe Biden used his veto power for the first time to block a bill that would have stopped fund managers basing investment decisions on ESG factors.
Last month, Jordan also subpoenaed nonprofit As You Sow and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), which is headed by Michael Bloomberg and former Bank of England governor Mark Carney.
