Senate Republicans Seek to Make ESG an Antitrust Issue
Republican senators, feeling their oats ahead of what was expected to be a decisive GOP victory in the midterm elections, penned letters to the leaders of 51 Big Law ESG practices last Friday to promise congressional scrutiny of ESG activities that violate antitrust laws.
As my colleague Dan Roe reports, the senators—Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida—took aim at “collusive” ESG efforts to restrict the country’s supply of oil, gas and coal, which they claimed drove up energy costs and empowered U.S. enemies abroad.
The senators vowed to scrutinize “institutionalized” antitrust violations and refer offenders to the FTC and DOJ. The letters pointed to recent congressional testimony from FTC Chair Lina Khan and Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter in which they confirmed that there is no “ESG exemption” to antitrust law and that practices involving corporate collusion could implicate antitrust laws if they are deemed to be anti-competitive.