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In today's episode of The Wright Report, we delve into significant topics affecting America and the world. We begin by discussing the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates, the Labor Department's report on increased layoffs, and IBM's shift towards artificial intelligence for certain jobs. Next, we explore the controversies surrounding green energy, including Congress's overturn of a Biden rule on solar panels, New York's gas stove ban, and the White House's admission of vulnerability to China. Finally, we discuss the Philippines' president's successful request to the White House and close with a listener's observation on Spotify's warning label for Tuesday's episode.

In this episode, listen in as Editor Sydny Shepard talks about safety measures in grain bins, a new Secretary of Labor and could California employers get advance notification of Cal/OSHA inspections?

The U.S. Department of Labor received thousands of comments on a newly proposed rule that says sustainable investments still need to put financial performance first to have a place in corporate retirement plans. Some say the proposal would put needed guardrails in place around an increasingly popular investment product, but others argue that the rule will hamper ESG options in pension funds.

We talk to sustainability experts on both sides of the debate in the latest episode ESG Insider, an S&P Global podcast about environmental, social and governance issues.

The Labor Department in June proposed requiring company-sponsored retirement accounts such as 401(k)s and pension plans that are subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, to give a higher priority to funds with the greatest financial performance potential than to those focused on non-financial environmental and social considerations. The vast majority of comments the DOL received in July were in opposition to the proposal, according to an analysis by a number of organizations including the US SIF: The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment.

Christian McCormick, director and senior product and sustainability specialist at asset manager Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC, notes that sustainable funds have grown exponentially. Morningstar Inc. reported that the money invested in sustainable funds increased nearly fourfold in 2019 from the prior calendar year to a total of $21.4 billion. In comparison, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, or WBCSD, has indicated that in 2019 only 4.8% of Fortune 1000 companies offered a socially-responsible fund option for employee retirement plans.

Given the rising popularity of ESG funds, McCormick suggests that the Labor Department may be trying to act early before the trend spreads and takes hold in retirement plans. If the agency were to wait until more companies offered ESG fund options, it would face much more push-back "because it would require a lot of cost to then change investment lineups [and] require a lot of regulatory and perhaps even litigation costs for plans that have already added it," McCormick says in the interview.

But William Sisson, executive director of the CEO-led WBCSD, contends that the new rule would make companies even less likely to offer ESG fund options. "This ruling is going to perhaps put some brakes on that because it's going to raise ... some flags to the fiduciaries in our companies about concerns over the litigation risk and other factors that they'll have to pay attention to if this ruling goes forward," he tells ESG Insider.