'National security concerns' raised as German group purchases influential US advisory firm

FIRST ON FOX: Two House Republican lawmakers are demanding the Biden administration investigate a German company’s acquisition of a major global advisory firm, raising concerns about foreign influence being used to promote a radical green energy agenda in the U.S.

"We write to draw your attention to national security concerns arising from the Deutsche Börse Group’s ("Deutsche Börse") acquisition of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc," Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., and House Administration Committee Chair Bryan Steil, R-Wis., wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

They pointed out that the Deutsche Börse press release on its purchase of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc (ISS) also highlighted the company’s commitment to ESG — which stands for environmental, social, and governance and is a progressive metric for firms to use when weighing investment strategies.

ISS is the largest proxy advisory firm both in the U.S. and abroad, according to a 2018 Harvard Law School report. Along with another company, Glass Lewis, they make up over 90% of the proxy advisory market, the lawmakers’ letter said.

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Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild explained, "Glass Lewis and ISS's advice weighs heavily on the makeup of boards of directors, C-suite hiring, and even capital investments within public companies. To give just one example, their push for absurd targets like Net Zero increases the cost of gasoline and shuts down critical electrical grid capacity in our nation."

Barr and Steil wrote to Yellen, "Since the acquisition, ISS has persistently used its substantial market power to push American companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the ‘net zero’ goals of the Paris Agreement. Net zero pathways require shutting down America’s existing natural gas and coal plants and replacing them with net-zero-aligned technologies for which China controls 70%–80% of the supply chain."

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They said ISS’ progressive commitment "threatens to undermine our nation’s energy independence, make our critical infrastructure dependent on China, weaken our national defense, and jeopardize our food security."

The letter cited a November 2020 press release by Deutsche Börse declaring that its acquisition of ISS "is a logical step in our ESG growth strategy" and would "strengthen" its focus "on sustainable investing."

"ISS’s ESG-aligned climate policies threaten the national security of the United States. They weaken our nation’s energy independence and make our critical infrastructure and energy supply dependent on foreign adversaries — especially China," they wrote. "The United States is the world’s number one producer of oil and natural gas. Yet ISS’s policies force America’s largest companies — including power and energy companies — to abandon our nation’s own bountiful resources and instead switch to ‘green’ technologies that produce lower GHG emissions in line with the net-zero agenda."

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They argued it also harmed the U.S.’ defense posture on the world stage by "driving our military’s critical energy supply away from the United States and into the hands of our most powerful adversary."

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Barr and Steil demanded that the Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States investigate the acquisition. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Treasury, Deutsche Börse and ISS for comment.