Amid Fossil Fuel Industry’s False Rhetoric, Sarah Bloom Raskin Withdraws Nomination to Federal Reserve

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew from her nomination as Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve, following opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) over Raskin’s support for climate action. Despite Raskin’s experience as a former Federal Reserve governor and Treasury Department official, pressure from fossil fuel interests led Republicans to boycott the vote in the Senate Banking Committee.

Doug Norlen, Economic Policy Program Director at Friends of the Earth issued the following statement in response:

Financial regulators around the world are increasingly taking bolder action on climate change, yet our senators are cutting our engines and leaving us in the dust.  We cannot move forward without leaders who are committed to a just financial transition away from climate risks, and Sarah Bloom Raskin is such a leader.

As a highly competent official with years of financial regulatory experience, and an understanding of the risks climate change poses to the U.S. economic system, Raskin would have been a great asset at the Federal Reserve. By knifing her confirmation, Senate Republicans and Joe Manchin have shown once again that they care more about their fossil fuel benefactors than the climate, economy, and future generations.

Communications contact: Kerry Skiff, 202-222-0723, [email protected]