Climate Investor Who Challenged Warren Buffet Shares Call to Action on Pipelines
Freeda Cathcart is a climate investor who challenged Warren Buffet, and for decades, was a passive owner of utility company stocks, content with dividend checks and confident that regulators had her and the environment’s best interest. In 2017, Trump rolled back federal oversight of the industry and changed everything. Cathcart believes pipelines and gas won’t be economically sustainable due to competition from clean energy and pressure for organizations to cut emissions. She joined the Wild Virginia Coffee Talk Podcast to chat about concerns on energy companies’ relationships to pipelines like the Mountain Valley pipeline, and new rules proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission that would enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures for investors.
“If you pay a sales tax in Virginia…your money is funding climate change, and you have every right to say that you don’t want that to happen anymore.”
Listen to the podcast here: https://wildvirginia.podbean.com/e/climate-investor-who-challenged-warren-buffet-shares-call-to-action-on-pipelines/
RECENT TIMELINE ON STATE BOARD DECISIONS ON MVP
- 2018: State Water Control Board (SWCB) votes to have a hearing to revoke the MVP permit
- 2019: SWCB is told state code prevents it from being able to stop work on the pipeline or to revoke the permit.
- 2021 a lawsuit is filed and pending in the 4th Circuit court against the Clean Water Act permit issued to the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).
- Jan. 2022 the 4th Circuit court throws out MVP’s permit to build through the Jefferson National Forest due to inadequate controls to keep sediment from going into the streams.
- Jan. 2022 the MVP files a suit in the 4th Circuit against the APCB for denying their permit request .
- Feb. 2022 the 4th Circuit throws out the U.S. Fish and Wildlife permit for the MVP because of the harm to endangered species.
SEC RULE CHANGES
Freeda explains her recent climate resolutions calling for boards to encourage more companies to issue annual sustainability reports, and elaborates on the Securities and Exchange Commissions (SEC)’s rule changes that would require registrants to include certain climate disclosures. For example, Dominion Energy has moved in a positive direction canceling the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and funding cleaner projects. However, a subsidiary of theirs is a part of the MVP, which seems incongruent with their parent company’s initiatives. This rule change is a way to hold these companies accountable.
Per the SEC, “The Securities and Exchange Commission…proposed rule changes that would require registrants to include certain climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports, including information about climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition, and certain climate financial statement metrics in a note to their audited financial statements. The required information about climate-related risks also would include disclosure of a registrant’s greenhouse gas emissions, which have become a commonly used metric to assess a registrant’s exposure to such risks.”
They are currently holding a public comment on this action – visit CancelMVP.com for more information on how to submit your comments with one easy click.
CALL TO ACTION: Demand Climate Transparency
Use this easy one click action to submit a comment to the SEC. Share this social media post to encourage others to join you.
CALL TO ACTION: Mountain Valley Pipeline
Dominion Energy shareholders voted over 80% in support of a resolution to require Dominion to report on their climate risk for natural gas. Dominion’s contract with Mountain Valley Pipeline is an example of an unnecessary project that would hurt shareholders. Amplify the pressure on Dominion to exit their contract with MVP by going to this digital toolkit which will be updated with talking points for letters to the editor and other easy to use social media posts like the ones below.
Retweet 1 @DominionEnergy #ExitMVP
Retweet 2 @DominionEnergy #ExitMVP
Facebook post @DominionEnergy #ExitMVP
Tune in to this episode to see how citizens get involved in the fight against MVP along with notable stories to reflect on as we are around the anniversary of the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). Looking to get more involved in the fight for climate and against pipelines?