April, 12 2021, 12:00am EDT
WASHINGTON
In a new poll from Data for Progress we assessed voter support for climate financial regulatory reform and found strong majorities in support of federal action to prevent a future financial and economic crisis driven by climate change.
Key Findings
- A majority of voters (60 percent) agree the federal government should enforce more financial safeguards on big banks and insurers to prevent a future financial and economic crisis driven by climate change
- A majority of voters (62 percent) agree the government should enact mandatory climate risk disclosure rules
- By a 35-percentage-point margin, voters prefer for the federal government to enforce climate risk disclosure rules rather than let Wall Street "self-regulate" their climate risk disclosures
- Nearly two-thirds of voters (63 percent) agree the Treasury and Federal Reserve should play an active role in protecting the financial system from a future financial crisis driven by climate change
- A majority of voters (62 percent) agree that banks making investments in industries that exacerbate climate change should also make investments in frontline communities
Read the full polling memo which can be found on the Data for Progress website.
Data for Progress is a multidisciplinary group of experts using state-of-the-art techniques in data science to support progressive activists and causes.
LATEST NEWS
Trump Pick to Replace Lina Khan Vowed to End 'War on Mergers'
In a one-page document obtained by Punchbowl, Ferguson—who previously worked as chief counsel to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)—pitched himself to Trump's team as the "pro-innovation choice" with "impeccable legal credentials" and "proven loyalty" to the president-elect.
Ferguson's top agenda priority, according to the document, is to "reverse Lina Khan's anti-business agenda" by rolling back "burdensome regulations," stopping her "war on mergers," halting the agency's "attempt to become an AI regulator," and ditching "novel and legally dubious consumer protection cases."
Trump announced Ferguson as the incoming administration's FTC chair as judges in Oregon and Washington state
blocked the proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons, decisions that one antitrust advocate called a "fantastic culmination of the FTC's work to protect consumers and workers."
According to a recent
report by the American Economic Liberties Project, the Biden administration "brought to trial four times as many billion-dollar merger challenges as Trump-Pence or Obama-Biden enforcers did," thanks to "strong leaders at the FTC" and the Justice Department's Antitrust Division.
In a letter to Ferguson following Trump's announcement on Tuesday, FTC Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter wrote that the document obtained and published by Punchbowl "raises questions" about his priorities at the agency mainly "because of what is not in it."
"Americans pay more for healthcare than anyone else in the developed world, yet they die younger," they wrote. "Medical bills bankrupt people. In fact, this is the main reason Americans go bankrupt. But the document does not mention the cost of healthcare or prescription medicine."
"If there was one takeaway from the election, it was that groceries are too expensive. So is gas," the commissioners continued. "Yet the document does not mention groceries, gas, or the cost of living. While you have said we're entering the 'most pro-worker administration in history,' the document does not mention labor, either. Americans are losing billions of dollars to fraud. Fraudsters are so brazen that they impersonate sitting FTC commissioners to steal money from retirees. The word 'fraud' does not appear in the document."
"The document does propose allowing more mergers, firing civil servants, and fighting something called 'the trans agenda,'" they added. "Is all of that more important than the cost of healthcare and groceries and gasoline? Or fighting fraud?"
As an FTC commissioner, Ferguson voted against rules banning anti-worker noncompete agreements and making it easier for consumers to cancel subscriptions. Ferguson was also the only FTC member to oppose an expansion of a rule to protect consumers from tech support scams that disproportionately impact older Americans.
"Andrew Ferguson is a corporate shill who opposes banning noncompetes, opposes banning junk fees, and opposes enforcing the Anti-Merger Act," said Basel Musharbash, principal attorney at Antimonopoly Counsel. "Appointing him to chair the FTC is an affront to the antitrust laws and a gift to the oligarchs and monopolies bleeding this country dry."
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