But not everyone supports paring back the shareholder proxy voting power of the big banks. The three institutions have already been taking steps to transfer voting power to their respective outside fund managers, Andrew Freedman, an attorney-activist with Olshan Frome in New York City said.
“Vanguard was first to hand over some of its enormous voting power to investors in 2019. BlackRock has since followed suit. I don’t think mandating the divesting of all of the voting power is necessarily a smart move, since not all institutional clients of the big three have the wherewithal or bandwidth to make proxy voting decisions at every public company at which they’re invested. It seems like private ordering may be a better solution,” Freedman added.
Blackrock has led the world in the creation of ESG ETFs that eschew oil and gas company and related investments, with many other firms jumping on the band wagon. But what happens to oil and natural gas production in the U.S. if no one invests, Sullivan asked.
“It’s the same thing with regard to financing” especially among smaller independent producers who are contacting Sullivan’s office to complain, he said.
“I think this due to a lot of pressure from a lot of federal regulators and this administration’s pressuring of American financial institutions," he said. "In my view those financial institutions need to wake up, not take the pressure and certainly not make grandiose announcements that they’re going to blackball America’s artic, Alaska, when they’re at the same time investing major capital in the Chinese communist party."