by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As appearing in the Washington Examiner
Wall Street giant BlackRock just added the CEO of Saudi Arabia ’s national oil company, Saudi Aramco, to its board of directors. The New York Times headline announcing the move read, “BlackRock Forges New Ties With Big Oil ,” giving the impression that BlackRock was reversing course on environmental, social, and governance investing and coming to its senses on fossil fuels.
The exact opposite is the case. This is just the latest chapter in the tragic and ongoing tale of America being sold out by the elites for the economic and geopolitical benefit of foreign competitors.
Part of Chairman and CEO Larry Fink’s strategy is to reposition BlackRock as oil-friendly by adding the Saudi Aramco CEO to BlackRock’s board. BlackRock and the rest of the ESG cartel have attracted much negative attention from red state attorneys general — attention that Fink is clearly trying to deflect.
But not only is Saudi Aramco not a U.S. oil company, it is actually hostile to the U.S. oil industry and its ability to dominate the global oil market. This should come as no surprise since an energy-independent U.S. means less profit and control for OPEC, of which Saudi Arabia is a founding member. So what we really have with ESG-loving BlackRock joining hands with the anti-U.S. oil Saudi Aramco is a potent merger of foes of the U.S. oil industry.
