Bill Hagerty Slams Biden Nominee: It’s Troubling That You ‘Advance These Extreme Climate Positions’

2 months ago

Earlier this month, Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) questioned nominees on climate policy and oversight durign a Senate Banking Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Commissioner Crenshaw, I'd like to start with you, please.

00:03You were a vocal supporter of including Scope 3 emissions

00:06in the SEC's Climate Disclosure Rule.

00:08I'd just like you to briefly explain for us your views

00:11on these requirements.

00:13Thank you, Senator.

00:15Again, I think that investors were asking for information,

00:19and I think one of the things investors were asking

00:22for was a variety of information, and there was a lot

00:24of support for Scope 3.

00:25At the end of the day, as you know, we did not include it.

00:28One of the things that I really think we should have thought

00:30about more completely were using models and estimates

00:33and assumptions, ways that issuers could provide investors

00:38with the information that they were looking for without having

00:41to go to the farmers, without having

00:43to go upstream or downstream.

00:45And I also think we could have really considered a robust,

00:48safe harbor from liability.

00:50That way it would have reduced cost for issuers

00:51and provided information to investors.

00:53I'm glad to hear you talk about cost right now, but it seemed

00:55that when you were responding

00:56to Senator Kennedy you didn't have a good idea

00:58about what the costs are.

00:59But the cost would be significant.

01:00The complexity, obviously, very considerable.

01:03When it comes to nominations, our job is to endorse

01:07or reject the policy positions that you've taken,

01:09because we've got to look at your past history

01:12as we think about the future.

01:14I really find it troubling that you leveraged your office

01:16at the SEC to advance these extreme climate positions.

01:20I think you've gone way beyond the remit of the SEC,

01:23and it's deeply concerning,

01:24not only did you support this climate disclosure rule,

01:27but you have argued that it didn't go far enough.

01:30And these requirements would crush businesses

01:33from manufacturing to energy to agriculture.

01:37I've talked to farmers in my state.

01:40They talk about, and farmers across the nation, frankly,

01:43have talked about how much of a burden this would have imposed

01:47on them, disclosing personal information,

01:49business information, or go out of business.

01:51You talked about wanting to impose cost on scammers,

01:54well I can tell you, you would impose cost on farmers

01:57to the extent you could even put them out of business,

01:59and the type of legal liability and exposure

02:01that this might be a predicate for,

02:03I don't know where you're trying to go with this.

02:05This absolutely has no place in my view.

02:07This is a very misguided proposal that you've supported.

02:10Commissioner Goldsmith-Romero, I'd like to come to you.

02:13It was reported that in 2016,

02:14when you were the Inspector General for TARP

02:16in investigating corruption allegations related

02:19to Mayor Mike Duggan's Detroit demolition program,

02:22that you told state investigators to, quote,

02:24go dark, and halt that investigation,

02:28noting to your staff, Mayor Duggan's Obama White House ties

02:32and his potential Clinton administration role.

02:35Is that true?

02:36Did you tell mission investigators in 2016

02:38to slow down their investigation?

02:40Absolutely not.

02:41That's completely made up.

02:42Can I just get this on the record then?

02:45Did you tell your staff in 2016 that Mayor Duggan was close

02:48with the Obama White House

02:50and a potential Hillary Clinton cabinet member

02:52or other senior post in the Clinton administration?

02:55No, Senator.

02:55I'm glad to have that on the record.

02:57Come back to you, Commissioner Crenshaw.

03:00You descended from the SEC's approval

03:02of Grayscale's pot spot Bitcoin ETF application,

03:06despite the fact that a federal court had struck

03:09down the SEC's prior disapproval.

03:11Do you continue to disagree

03:13with the SEC's approval of Bitcoin ETFs?

03:15Senator, to approve an ETP,

03:18you have to make a public interest finding

03:20on each individual one.

03:21So to the degree that the commission votes,

03:23and we've only voted on that one, Senator, and to make

03:28that public interest finding, you look at the facts in front

03:31of you, and given the significant fraud

03:33in the underlying spot markets globally, given the opacity

03:38of the court looked at the facts, and they struck it down.

03:41I've just been in the room for a while, and I've been in the room

03:43and they struck it down.

03:44I've just been deeply disturbed by the posture

03:47that the commission and specifically yourself have taken

03:50with hostility toward the crypto industry.

03:52This is a critical industry in terms of innovation

03:55and technology in our country,

03:57and I hate to see it being pushed overseas.

03:59Commissioner Goldsmith-Romeo, I'm going to come back to you now.

04:02The current FDIC chairman grossly mishandled the auctions

04:05of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank,

04:07two of the largest bank failures in U.S. history.

04:10Where do you think the biggest risks are right now

04:12within the banking system?

04:14Thank you for that question, Senator.

04:16I think we need to look at, we're still,

04:18we still have this commercial real estate risk

04:22that is happening, particularly related to offices

04:25and after the pandemic, and also multifamily homes.

04:29So I think that's a major risk we have to look at.

04:31I think we also just need to continue to think

04:33about interest rate risk, and how banks should manage that.

04:37So those are some of the areas.

04:39Real quickly, FDIC leadership heavily cited the

04:42requirements of the least cost test as an excuse

04:45for the fact that these auctions failed.

04:47What role did the least cost test play

04:48in the failed auctions, in your view?

04:51Yeah, so I'm just looking at it

04:52from the outside, Senator, just like you are.

04:54And so I don't know.

04:56Actually, I'm not looking at it from the outside.

04:57I saw what happened.

04:58And the least cost rule is an excuse

05:00because it was misapplied.

05:01It's got to be fixed.

05:03The person that's going to come in

05:04and lead this agency can't learn on the job.

05:06You need to know how it needs to be addressed,

05:08because what we did here, what the commission did,

05:11was expose the system to massive risk.

05:13It should have never happened this way.

05:14How would you fix it?

05:16Yeah, so I understand the least cost test.

05:18What I was saying from the outside is,

05:20I can't see sort of specifically how it was applied

05:23and how they came up with those numbers.

05:24That's something that's been raised by a number of senators

05:26and would be one of the top things I would go in

05:28to try to dig behind and try to figure out what is going on.

05:31I hope that before you're confirmed,

05:32you will work with us to come up with an approach to this.

05:35Because again, you could get the call on day one

05:38when you walk in the office

05:39that there's another bank failure.

05:41We can't let this situation repeat itself.

05:44Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

05:45Senator Warren.

Bill Hagerty Slams Biden Nominee: It’s Troubling That You ‘Advance These Extreme Climate Positions’

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