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Like a Banker-Belt-n-Road plan, BlackRock give Australia batteries we don’t need with ESG strings attached

Some nice Banker people have turned up to give us the batteries we need to save the world. What could possibly go wrong?

The Leviathan BlackRock will soon spend a billion dollars on big batteries in Australia. It is the largest asset manager in the world — with some $10 Trillion in assets to direct. To put that kind of power in perspective,  the entire GDP of Australia is about $1.4 Trillion, so if BlackRock chose to throw its weight around, to hypothetically, improve its chances of making a profit, it won’t need an army, it just needs to hint “nice business you have there”, and the path will presumably clear. There are only two countries on Earth with larger GDP’s  — America and China.

If BlackRock was a country the Foreign Investment Review Board of Australia would need to pay attention to potential conflicts of interest. But as it is, BlackRock flies under that radar while it bullies other companies and governments to do things to “save the world” which also happen to make profits for BlackRock.

If say, the voters of Australia voted against Climate Action as electricity bills drew blood, it’s hard to imagine BlackRock wouldn’t be pulling strings to keep the government subsidy train pointed at its own tunnel. It would effectively be working against the interests of Australians. While all investors are supposed to work for their shareholders, most investors don’t wield the kind of power that’s larger than our GDP.

US Giant BlackRock to Invest $1 Billion Into Australian Battery Projects

Daniel Teng, The Epoch Times

U.S. investment giant BlackRock will invest $1 billion (US$701 million) into Australian battery projects after agreeing to acquire Melbourne-based Akaysha Energy.

Its largest project is the 1,600 megawatt Orana battery in Wellington, central-west New South Wales, which can provide around eight hours of energy storage.

Given that BlackRock is equivalent to a major foreign power, shouldn’t the government be asking harder questions before it opens the door to an entity that lobbies like a political activist, serves foreign investors, and shamelessly meddles in national policies?

h/t Colin, Dave B,  aspnaz

 

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