By Corinne Murdock |

Two of the largest private equity firms in the U.S. and the world, Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone, respectively, are now backing the adoption of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) measures in Arizona’s utility companies. 

The two globalist ESG-focused companies acquired Energy Exemplar on Halloween. Energy Exemplar owns Aurora Software Consulting Services, used by Arizona’s utilities to provide all modeling and analysis for the resource plans submitted to Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC).

The resource plans submitted by Arizona Public Services (APS), Tucson Electric Power (TEP), and UniSource Energy Services (UNS) Electric largely align with the energy transition directives set forth by Net Zero by 2050.

“Consistent with these overall trends in the energy market. APS has committed to being 100% clean and carbon free by 2050,” stated the APS resource plan.

“[Our resource plan] outlines the sources we anticipate using to satisfy customers’ need for reliable, affordable energy over the next 15 years while working toward a new, long-term objective of net zero direct greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” stated TEP.

“[Our company has a] long-term transition to zero carbon emissions by 2050,” stated UNS Electric.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) — of which the U.S. is a member — came up with Net Zero by 2050, the roadmap to globalize the energy sector by total decarbonization, or achieving net zero carbon emissions, by 2050. Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners are among the biggest financial backers of the effort.

Specifically, Net Zero by 2050 aims to eliminate all emissions-producing energy sources (namely fossil fuels) by replacing them with less reliable renewable energy sources like solar and wind, bioenergies like biomethane, or hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels; instituting greater energy efficiency measures, such as reducing appliance energy consumption and reducing heating and cooling temperature consumption; and electrifying all fossil fuels-based products, such as cars, buses, trucks, heat pumps, and furnaces for steel production.

The campaign also aims to institute behavioral changes among the world’s populace, such as replacing driving with walking, cycling, or public transit, and in some cases foregoing flights entirely. 

By 2030, the campaign proposes to introduce eco-driving and motorway speed limits of 60 miles an hour, phasing out gas cars in large cities (dubbed “ICE” cars, which stands for “internal combustion engine”), reducing “excessive” hot water temperatures, reducing the average weight of a passenger car by 10 percent, limiting the average space heating temperature to about 68 degrees and average space cooling temperature to 77 degrees. 

By 2050, the campaign proposes to replace regional flights with high-speed rail, preventing business and long-haul leisure air travel from exceeding 2019 levels, improving fertilizer use efficiency by 10 percent, and reducing the use of “energy-intensive” materials per unit floor area by 30 percent.

The Biden administration is fully on board with Net Zero by 2050; the State Department issued its own roadmap on the matter in November 2021. 

Blackstone, which manages about $1 trillion in assets, has committed to supporting the globalist goal of net zero by 2050. Per its 2022 climate-related financial disclosures report last year, the company estimated that it would take $115 trillion to reach net zero by 2050. The company invested about $100 billion toward that goal last year, and launched a dedicated credit platform for their ESG goals.

In 2021, Vista Equity Partners was among the first American private equity firms to join the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative. They pledged to reduce their $100 billion in portfolio companies’ emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and emit net zero greenhouse gas emission across their portfolio by 2050.

NZAM, launched in December 2020, is a formal partner of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Race to Zero Campaign. NZAM is regarded as the world’s largest climate finance alliance, with over 300 companies maintaining about $64 trillion in assets as of September. Blackstone is not part of NZAM. 

As reported last month, ACC responded to controversy over utilities’ implementation of ESG policies with the claim that it lacked the authority to ban them from doing so. 

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.