Ginny Roscamp, Deputy Press Secretary, Sierra Club, ginny.roscamp@sierraclub.org, 415-508-8498 (Pacific Time)
WASHINGTON, DC — The Senate Financial Services Committee’s confirmation hearing for Treasury Secretary nominee and billionaire former hedge fund manager Scott Bessent confirmed President-elect Trump’s economic agenda: prioritizing billionaires and the ultra-wealthy while focusing on Wall Street, cryptocurrencies, and boosting oil and gas corporate profits at the expense of working and middle-class Americans.
Bessent, whose nomination is marred by a laundry list of conflicts of interests and ethical concerns, including possible tax avoidance, faced scrutiny over his controversial positions. These include proposals such as:
- Eliminating consumer protections,
- Ignoring growing climate-related financial risks and climate-driven economic shocks,
- Restricting responsible investing,
- Overlooking cryptocurrency-enabled criminal activity,
- Prioritizing oil and gas development over clean energy, and
- Mismanaging the nation’s financial stability amid a climate-driven insurance crisis, threatening mortgage lenders and harming Americans’ livelihoods.
In response to the hearing, Ben Cushing, campaign director for the Sierra Club’s Sustainable Finance campaign, issued the following statement:
“Climate change poses a growing threat to the economy and workers' financial security, and Wall Street continues to play a central role in driving the crisis. The Treasury Secretary and the Financial Stability Oversight Council have a critical responsibility to address climate risks to our financial system—a reality recognized by every major U.S. financial regulatory agency in recent years. If the next Treasury Secretary advances Trump’s agenda of rolling back climate action and deregulating Wall Street, it will harm American families, isolate the U.S. on the global stage, and make bold state and local leadership more essential than ever.”
Other advocacy groups also issued the following statements in response to the hearing:
“Scott Bessent made a fortune investing in fossil fuels. The raging fires in Los Angeles show that fossil fuel-driven climate change is already unleashing significant economic damage, and the threat to households will only grow stronger until we transition to a clean energy economy. Putting a climate arsonist like Bessent in charge of macroeconomic governance would be a grave mistake at a time when extreme weather is upending home insurance and mortgage markets.” -Kenny Stancil, Senior Researcher, Revolving Door Project
“At a moment when the insurance industry finds itself at the forefront of the climate crisis, Bessent needs to address the inherent risk climate change poses to global financial markets. Instead, Scott Bessent seems intent on locking in fossil fuel dependence, regardless of the destabilizing impacts this will have on the U.S. economy and financial system. The next Treasury Secretary must be focused on building a clean-energy economy that lowers costs and creates jobs, not adopting policies that help line the pockets of the fossil fuel industry while selling out climate-vulnerable communities.” -Bartlett Naylor, Financial Policy Advocate, Public Citizen
“Scott Bessent, who has made millions investing in the oil and gas industry and has been an outspoken opponent of renewable energy development and responsible investing. As today’s confirmation hearing showed, confirming Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary would cause a wave of setbacks for our clean energy economy while harming American consumers and businesses.” -Unlocking America’s Future Spokesperson Kyle Herrig
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.