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Memo

MEMO: Trump’s Cabinet Picks Would Be Disastrous for Responsible Investing

January 14, 2025

To: Interested Parties
From: Unlocking America’s Future
RE: Trump’s Cabinet Picks Would Be Disastrous for Responsible Investing To Appease Big Oil
Date: January 14, 2025

Despite claiming to champion free enterprise and the free market in America, many of President-elect Trump’s nominees—from Chris Wright to Pam Bondi—for top spots across the government have consistently waged attacks against responsible investing, decrying it as “woke” to the benefit of themselves and their billionaire cronies in the oil and gas industry.

“Trump made a promise to Big Oil during his campaign to keep their pockets lined, and he intends to keep that promise,” said Kyle Herrig, spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future. “He has stacked his administration with nominees who will stop at nothing to attack those who dare to pursue responsible investing—even if it means hurting the American economy and threatening the retirement savings of millions of Americans.”

Ahead of their Senate confirmation hearings, Unlocking America’s Future has outlined how these anti-ESG zealots have and will continue to attack responsible investing:

Chris Wright, Department of Energy:

Trump Energy Secretary pick Chris Wright is an outspoken opponent and antagonist of climate science. Wright has been one of the key supporters behind the anti-responsible investing movement and has gone as far as drinking fracking fluid to defend the fossil fuel industry. 

  • Wright has been one of the most outspoken opponents of the SEC’s climate risk disclosure rule, which aims to provide investors transparency into companies’ greenhouse gas emissions and their climate-related risks. In March 2024, Wright’s company Liberty Energy filed a lawsuit against the SEC in an attempt to stop the rule from taking effect.
  • He currently sits on the Board of Directors of the Pacific Research Institute, an anti-climate science advocacy organization that has been a vehicle for Big Oil’s attacks against responsible investing in recent years and pushes misleading campaigns about the dangers of the climate crisis.

Pam Bondi, Department of Justice:

Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Pam Bondi, is backed by anti-ESG supporters and is the former Attorney General of Florida whose tenure was riddled with controversy—including helping Donald Trump avoid a fraud investigation into Trump University. 

Howard Lutnick, Department of Commerce:

Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for Commerce Secretary, is a Trump loyalist who has called climate change a concern of the “elitist” and invests in an anti-ESG fund.

  • In a September 2024 interview with Fox Business, he suggested that climate change is a concern only of the “elitist” and the rich, including those who attend Ivy League schools, live on the East Coast and are “pro-Palestinian.” 
  • Lutnick is an investor in anti-ESG Strive Asset Management, which was founded by Vivek Ramaswamy with financial backing from Peter Thiel and JD Vance.

Scott Bessent, Department of Treasury:

For U.S. Treasury Secretary, President-elect Donald Trump selected hedge-fund titan Scott Bessent, who has made millions investing in the oil and gas industry and has been an outspoken opponent of renewable energy development and the Inflation Reduction Act. 

  • Besset’s financial firm, Key Square Capital Management LLC, has made millions of dollars investing in the oil and gas industry. As recently as the first quarter of 2024, Scott Bessent’s Key Square Capital Management LLC owned a $3.1 million stake in LyondellBasell Industries, which owns a soon-to-be-shuttered oil refinery in Houston. 
  • Bessent has been a vocal opponent of renewable energy development and the Inflation Reduction Act, which spurred billions in clean energy manufacturing investment into America’s rural economies. As Treasury Secretary he’d be in a position to rewrite or reverse clean energy tax credit portions of the law, which President-elect Trump has called the “greatest scam in history.”

Lee Zeldin, Environmental Protection Agency:

Trump EPA Administrator pick Lee Zeldin is an anti-ESG zealot who seems to have been selected purely because of his loyalty to Trump, rather than his interest in environmental policy. 

  • Business Insider reported that former Rep. Lee Zeldin made $186,000 from paid op-eds and speeches where he criticized ESG and responsible investing policies.
  • In August 2024, Zeldin published a guest essay in New York Newsday entitled “War on ESG investing must shift focus to proxy advisers.” In the essay, Zeldin attacked “Wall Street and special interests” for trying to “force environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, policies into our workplace, retirements, and lives.”
  • In another op-ed published in March 2023 for Real Clear Policy, Zeldin called on Congress to investigate ESG practices and the nonprofit watchdog Better Markets.
  • There is every indication that Zeldin was selected for the role of EPA Administrator because of his loyalty to Donald Trump and that he will fulfill Trump’s agenda to “kill” and “cancel” EPA rules and regulations regarding climate change. 

Paul Atkins, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC):

To lead the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Trump picked lawyer and financial services executive Paul Atkins—an anti-ESG advocate with deep ties to conservative organizations. Atkins’ nomination likely guarantees the rolling back of the SEC’s landmark climate risk disclosure rule.

  • Atkins has written extensively in opposition to the SEC’s climate disclosure rule, including an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in which he urged the agency to “retract and rethink its planned disclosure rule.” 
  • Atkins is a member of the conservative Federalist Society.  He has spoken at numerous Federalist Society meetings and events, including several on the subject of ESG investing, most recently in July 2024 on a panel on “Utah v. Su: Are DOL (and SEC) regulations that encourage ESG investing lawful?”  
  • An active opponent of shareholder activism, Atkins has publicly attacked shareholder activists and railed against labor unions, environmentalists, and LGBTQ+ rights groups for attempting to challenge public companies. He referred to corporations as “weenies” for “often cav[ing]” to activists’ will.