FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is asking for Home Republican management to carry a listening to to evaluate current efforts to open federal property up for public and international possession.
Banks penned a letter to Home Monetary Providers Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., requesting the panel schedule a listening to on so-called natural asset companies (NACs).
Although a federal proposal to publicly listing NACs was not too long ago withdrawn, proponents are reportedly dedicated to pushing the brand new company taxonomy. An NAC is a kind of firm chartered to “protect, restore and grow the natural assets under their management to foster healthy ecosystems.”
“The environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement, while ostensibly focused on financial markets, is now using NACs to bring its partisan and progressive influence onto public land management,” Banks wrote to McHenry within the letter shared with Fox Information Digital. “This can be a disturbing improvement that needs to be addressed by the Committee.
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Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., questions witnesses during a House hearing Feb. 28, 2023. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“The Committee ought to demand the SEC ship a extra intelligible clarification of the alleged advantages of itemizing NACs in an open listening to,” he continued. “Moreover, identical to ESG, funding into NACs might be most detrimental to the typical American’s portfolio. Severe monetary questions exist about whether or not they are going to generate investor returns in any respect.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Banks said House Republicans must defend property rights in the U.S.
“Pure asset corporations are probably the most horrifying and anti-American concepts to return out of the ESG motion, which says quite a bit. Republicans in Congress should combat again in opposition to this assault on Individuals’ personal property rights,” the Indiana lawmaker said.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) states that NACs “seize the intrinsic and productive worth of nature and supply a retailer of worth based mostly on the important property that underpin our whole financial system and make life on earth potential.” The NYSE says natural assets that could be grouped into a NAC include forests, wetlands and coral reefs, as well as working lands such as farms.
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In 2023, the NYSE proposed a rule change with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that would have allowed for NACs to be listed on the exchange. The NYSE collaborated on the proposal with financial services firm Intrinsic Exchange Group, which first floated the idea of listing NACs as a free market solution to climate change.
But in January, after receiving widespread criticism from Republican state financial officers and attorneys general, and later Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee, the SEC announced in a filing that NYSE had rescinded the proposal.
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., speaks during a hearing March 29, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“It’s exhausting to overstate the hazard that so-called ‘pure asset corporations’ pose to the livelihood of tens of millions of Individuals,” Will Hild, the executive director of watchdog group Consumers’ Research, previously told Fox News Digital. “Massive woke companies together with BlackRock and international corporations from hostile nations reminiscent of China could be handed free rein to purchase up tens of millions of acres of public land.
“Ranching, farming, energy production and many other critical industries would be denied shared access to public land, eliminating their productive use,” Hild added. “Even people who use public lands for recreation and hunting could suddenly find their access taken away.”
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Nonetheless, Banks stated in his letter to McHenry that whereas the NYSE proposal was withdrawn, the opportunity of itemizing NACs sooner or later nonetheless exists.
Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Change Fee, speaks throughout a Home Appropriations Subcommittee listening to March 29, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Pictures)
Douglas Eger, chairman and CEO of the Intrinsic Change Group, not too long ago informed the media outlet Agri-Pulse his agency remained “committed” to pushing NACs.
“We will come to the private markets, and we’ll find an appropriate outlet to the public markets — domestically or internationally,” Eger stated.
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McHenry did not reply to a request for remark.
