Ben Cushing

Director of the @SierraClub's Sustainable Finance Campaign (posts are my own) | 🦋➡️

[Ben Cushing @bmcushing]

📣👋 New paper from @SierraClub out today — a long time in the making.

It challenges conventional sustainable investing and urges asset owners to confront climate change as a systemic threat to the global economy and long-term portfolios.

👉 Full paper: https://t.co/BbaikTj8tZ

[Sierra Club @SierraClub]

📢 Annual @sierraclub scorecard ranks 33 major U.S. public pensions and reveals most are failing to adequately manage the climate-related financial risks to their investments through proxy voting.

See how your state stacks up: https://t.co/3IpVX1gPle

[Ben Cushing @bmcushing]

📢 The latest @SierraClub scorecard ranks 33 major U.S. public pensions and reveals most are failing to adequately manage the climate-related financial risks to their investments through proxy voting.

See how your state stacks up here: https://t.co/ml7xArxoqX

[Sierra Club @SierraClub]

Did your power bills go up last month? It might be because Donald Trump is forcing old coal plants to stay online, and making YOU pay to keep them running.

Listen to Sierra Club Senior Attorney Greg Wannier answer how this is possible ⬇️

[Crain's New York @CrainsNewYork]

Op-ed: City's new comptroller, pension trustees must lead on climate https://t.co/WDKXzRwpCa

[Sierra Club @SierraClub]

New @NYCComptroller @MarkLevineNYC & NYC pension trustees are weighing a $40B+ move from BlackRock over its climate failures — a decision that could set a key national precedent, writes Sierra Club executive director Loren Blackford in @crainsnewyork: https://t.co/1ukAy8ShtZ

[Sierra Club @SierraClub]

The Sierra Club is suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its rollback of key climate protections, arguing the move is illegal, unscientific, and harmful to public health.

The lawsuit, filed today by the Sierra Club and a coalition of health and environmental advocacy groups, challenges recent actions by theTrump administration’s EPA under Administrator Lee Zeldin to eliminate clean vehicle standards and repeal safeguards against climate pollution. The coalition says these rollbacks will increase pollution, raise fuel costs, and put communities at risk.

Read more at the link: https://t.co/RiFMD6Nz5t

[Ben Cushing @bmcushing]

The new @NYCComptroller @MarkLevineNYC & NYC pension trustees are weighing moving $40B+ out of BlackRock over its climate failures.

This step could set a key national precedent, writes @SierraClub Executive Director @Loren_Blackford in @CrainsNewYork.
https://t.co/KzMhxJYqY3

[Ginny Roscamp @virginiainwa]

NYC Comptroller Mark Levine & pension trustees face a defining choice about how to protect our city & workers from the financial impacts of climate change, writes @SierraClub's Loren Blackford in @CrainsNewYork.

https://t.co/nMID7YI1ks

@marklevinenyc @nyccomptroller

[Sierra Club @SierraClub]

🚨 BREAKING: Trump is moving to eliminate the EPA’s Endangerment Finding—one of the strongest legal tools we have to fight climate pollution.

With the stroke of a pen at a White House event this Thursday, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin will formalize climate denialism as official government policy and move to eliminate EPA’s ability to directly fight the climate crisis. This reckless move would gut EPA’s authority to limit climate pollution from cars, power plants, and other major polluters.

This finding has been upheld by the courts, grounded in overwhelming science, and used since 2009 to protect communities from deadly pollution. Eliminating it puts polluter profits over people’s lives, right as climate change is already destroying communities and driving up costs.

The Sierra Club has fought for federal climate protections longer than any other organization, and we’re not backing down now. We’re exploring every legal option to stop this dangerous rollback.

We will fight this. Polluters should pay — not the public. Read more at our statement 🔗

[Reuters @Reuters]

Rejection of Texas law blacklisting 'woke' BlackRock could challenge anti-ESG laws in other states https://t.co/u2zDXvMDbh https://t.co/u2zDXvMDbh

[Sheldon Whitehouse @SenWhitehouse]

There’s a thing out there called a “climate husher.” Anyone who cares about what fossil fuel pollution is doing to Earth’s natural systems needs to ignore these so-called “climate hushers” – people who think Dems should stop talking about climate.

[Ben Cushing @bmcushing]

Huge. Laws like this were designed to punish investors for taking basic steps to address climate risk.

@SierraClub statement: https://t.co/XKXSTRisIs

Also worth noting: the firms targeted were never actually "boycotting" fossil fuels—that was political misinformation all along.

[Texas Tribune @TexasTribune]

A federal district judge on Wednesday declared Senate Bill 13 — a 2021 law restricting state investments in companies boycotting the fossil fuel industry — unconstitutional, calling it “facially overbroad” and citing First and Fourteenth Amendment concerns.
https://t.co/mAKIxEFxk9

[Ben Mullin @BenMullin]

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

[Isaac Stanley-Becker @isaacstanbecker]

If you're canceling your Washington Post subscription but still have an Amazon Prime membership, you're doing it wrong.

[Peter Baker @peterbakernyt]

Jeff Bezos wealth in 2024: $194 billion

Jeff Bezos wealth in 2025: $215 billion

Jeff Bezos wealth today: $249.4 billion

Net increase in Bezos wealth since 2024: $55.4 billion

Cost of Bezos’s 417-foot superyacht: $500 million

Amazon investment in "Melania": $75 million

Original Bezos purchase price of the Washington Post in 2013: $250 million

Bezos net worth in 2013: $25.2 billion

Net increase in Bezos wealth since buying the Post: $224.2 billion

Last reported annual losses of Post: $100 million

Number of years Bezos could absorb those losses with what he makes in a single week: 5

@JeffBezos

[Seung Min Kim @seungminkim]

+1. Will proudly continue to be a print subscriber, because the remaining staffers will continue to report the heck out of politics, the federal government and national security.

[Ben Cushing @bmcushing]

Small clarification: the headline that appears was written by the FT, not me. My submitted headline was "Investors should not conflate polluters’ interests with their own" — which better reflects the argument in the letter itself (grateful nonetheless to have it published).

[Ben Cushing @bmcushing]

My letter on the @FT story on BP/Shell’s climate rollbacks is now up.

The key takeaway: most investors should recognize that the interests of major polluters are often at odds with their own long-term portfolio interests — and should act accordingly.
https://t.co/EicxsXxCLS

[Jessye Waxman @jessyewaxman]

☕ New blog: Key takeaways from @SierraClub report on pension investments in #climate solutions.

Out of time for the full report? This 5-minute read breaks down what’s working & where pensions can strengthen their climate risk strategies.

Read here 👇
https://t.co/R7U5ppEIkq

[Tim Walz @Tim_Walz]

Minnesotans - you have won the hearts and minds of this country through peaceful protest. Change is coming.