Skål to Hypocrisy: Norway Oil Fund Demands Climate Actions from U.S. Refiner

Apparently “NBIM” is Norwegian for “hypocrite.” Norway’s trillion-plus dollar oil fund just voted to require a U.S. oil refiner to produce a report on climate goals. Because, I guess, lecturing other companies about the climate somehow wipes away all woke guilt at making money off oil?

Reuters reported on May 4 that the biggest global stock market investor, Norway’s $1.4 trillion sovereign wealth fund managed by Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), is taking “a tougher line on companies in its portfolio that do not adopt sufficiently credible climate plans.” That plan was announced last year and is now taking effect, unfortunately. Except that the fund was “built on cash from Norway’s oil and gas industry,” Reuters said.

Now that NBIM has its wealth and status, it’s happy to complicate life for other companies with its climate change virtue-signaling. This includes a promise to vote in favor of a shareholder resolution which would require a climate goals report from U.S. refiner Valero Energy. Valero is warning that requirements to follow stricter environmental restrictions would force refineries to close.

Of course, climate change “experts” have been consistently and wildly wrong for 50 years now. A recent instance is data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) showing that there has not been global warming for the past eight years. But that doesn’t stop climate alarmists from still prophesying imminent doom.

From Reuters:

The vote on a plan for Valero to release short-, medium- and long-term reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions was called by a shareholder asking the company to align with the Paris climate agreement’s goal of limiting global warming…

Valero’s board should account for material sustainability risks facing the company as well as the broader environmental and social consequences of its operations and products, NBIM said on its website.

Valero’s board already recommended a rejection of the motion regarding the Paris climate goals, warning that the arbitrary climate goals would require closing oil refineries. That’s during a time when the West, including the U.S., is already struggling with an energy crisis. Instead, Valero recommended a pursuit of “low-carbon fuel production,” Reuters reported. But that’s seemingly not good enough for the self-righteous Norwegian fund.

The NBIM-managed fund was built using money from the Norwegian oil and gas industry, as noted above. Reuters said that the Norwegian fund owned a 1.07% stake in Valero as of the end of 2022, a stake valued at $523 million. The value of that stake might well decrease, though, if NBIM’s woke and irrational climate plans succeed.