Anyone
who has been delving into Scott Morrison & Angus
Taylor’s 98 page AUSTRALIA’S
LONG-TERM EMISSIONS REDUCTION PLAN: Modelling and Analysis
(Dept. of
Industry, Science, Energy and Resources: DISER) document and, attempting to pin down where within its content examples of genuine
modelling relying on science, fact-based assumptions and realistic
projections, might have seen the name McKinsey & Company
crop up on no less than 76 occasions.
That
name rang a bell. Here is a brief background…….
The
New York Times,
28 October 2021, p.6:
….a
revolt has been brewing inside the world's most influential
consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, over its support of the
planet's biggest polluters.
More
than 1,100 employees and counting have signed an open letter to the
firm's top partners, urging them to disclose how much carbon their
clients spew into the atmosphere. "The climate crisis is the
defining issue of our generation," wrote the letter's authors,
nearly a dozen McKinsey consultants. "Our positive impact in
other realms will mean nothing if we do not act as our clients alter
the earth irrevocably."
Several
of the authors have resigned since the letter, which has never before
been reported, came out last spring -- with one sending out a widely
shared email that cited McKinsey's continued work with fossil fuel
companies as a primary reason for his departure…..[my yellow highlighting]
The
Hill,
27 October 2021:
... Since
then, some of the letter's authors, who are consultants at McKinsey,
have resigned from the company which is considered the world's most
influential consulting firm, the Times reported.
Lawsuits,
internal documents and interviews with four ex-McKinsey employees
showed that McKinsey has advised at
least 43 of the world's top 100 polluters in the past 50 years,
per the Times.
The
investigation by the Times found that those clients alone, excluding
some of McKinsey's other clients who also contribute to pollution,
accounted for over one-third of global carbon emissions in 2018.
At
least one consultant who resigned specifically cited McKinsey's work
with fossil fuel companies as his main reason for leaving. The
Environmental Protection Agency has noted that "burning fossil
fuels changes the climate more than any other human activity."
“Walking
away from these sectors might appease absolutist critics,” D.J.
Carella, a spokesman for McKinsey, said to the Times, adding that it
"would do nothing to solve the climate challenge."…. [my
yellow highlighting]
The
New York Times,
6
November 2021:
A
House committee has requested documents related to the firm's advice
to drug makers and potential conflicts of interest with the F.D.A.
In
a new assault on the global consulting giant McKinsey & Company,
Congress on Friday started an investigation into the firm's role in
the opioid crisis, sending a letter demanding records related to its
"business practices, conflicts of interest and management
standards."
The
12-page letter, which was sent by the House Committee on Oversight
and Reform, asked for names of McKinsey clients in the health care
industry as well as documents connected to its work with opioid
manufacturers, distributors and retailers. The committee is also
looking at how McKinsey's consulting for drugmakers may conflict with
work it has done for the Food and Drug Administration.
By
advising opioid makers and "the federal agency regulating their
conduct," McKinsey "may have had a significant negative
impact on Americans' health," the committee said.
The
letter was signed by the committee's chairwoman, Representative
Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, who requested that McKinsey produce
the documents by Nov. 19. McKinsey has a policy of not identifying
its clients or the advice it gives.
A
spokesman for the firm on Friday said McKinsey had "received the
committee's letter and will engage directly with the committee
regarding their requests."
This
year, McKinsey agreed to pay all 50 states more than $600 million to
settle investigations into how it had helped "turbocharge"
opioid sales, focusing mostly on its work with Purdue Pharma, the
maker of OxyContin. McKinsey did not admit any wrongdoing.
The
request on Friday follows a narrower one on Aug. 23, from a
bipartisan group of six U.S. senators seeking records from the F.D.A.
on its work with McKinsey at the same time that it was regulating
opioid manufacturers, calling that relationship "a potential
conflict of interest." The senators asked for more information
about the firm's work with the F.D.A. division that approved certain
classes of drugs, including prescription opioids.
OxyContin
and similar painkillers can be addictive and prone to abuse. From
1999 to 2019, nearly 500,000 people in the United States died of
opioid overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention….. [my
yellow highlighting]
Reuters,
18 August 2021:
… McKinsey
earlier this year reached agreements with state attorneys general to
pay $641 million to resolve claims it helped drug manufacturers,
including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, to design marketing plans
and boost sales of painkillers.
Lawsuits
by cities, counties and others followed, and Breyer now oversees at
least 51 cases…. [my yellow highlighting]
The
New York Times,
3 December 2019 - updated 24 February 2021:
Just
days after he took office in 2017, President Trump set out to make
good on his campaign pledge to halt illegal immigration. In a pair of
executive orders, he ordered “all legally available resources” to
be shifted to border detention facilities, and called for hiring
10,000 new immigration officers.
The
logistical challenges were daunting, but as luck would have it,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement already had a partner on its
payroll: McKinsey & Company, an international consulting firm
brought on under the Obama administration to help engineer an
“organizational transformation” in the ICE division charged with
deporting migrants who are in the United States unlawfully.
ICE
quickly redirected McKinsey toward helping the agency figure out how
to execute the White House’s clampdown on illegal immigration.
But
the money-saving recommendations the consultants came up with made
some career ICE workers uncomfortable. They proposed cuts in spending
on food for migrants, as well as on medical care and supervision of
detainees, according to interviews with people who worked on
the project for both ICE and McKinsey and 1,500 pages of documents
obtained from the agency after ProPublica filed a lawsuit under the
Freedom of Information Act….
[my
yellow highlighting]
The
New York Times,
9 January 2019:
A
judge in Virginia reopened a more than two-year-old case on Wednesday
to consider accusations that the powerful consultancy McKinsey &
Company had defrauded his court while advising
a bankrupt coal company…..
McKinsey
already faces similar claims of misconduct from Mr. Alix in the
bankruptcy of another energy
company, Westmoreland Coal, in Texas…. [my
yellow highlighting]
Financial
Times,
20 February 2019:
McKinsey
has agreed to a $15m settlement with the US Department of Justice to
resolve claims that the influential consulting firm failed to
properly disclose conflicts of interest in bankruptcy cases over two
decades.
The settlement on Tuesday is among the largest
made by a bankruptcy professional accused of failing to comply with
disclosure rules, according to the justice department, and adds to
the mounting scrutiny of the professional services giant.... [my yellow highlighting]
Consulting.us,
4 December 2020:
The
USTP [US
Trustee Program] started the mediation with
McKinsey in 2019 after noting that
the consulting firm withheld “critical details” about connections
to parties with a potential economic interest in the $1.4 billion
Westmoreland bankruptcy case.
Westmoreland
Coal emerged from Chapter 11 in June 2019. McKinsey, however, will
forgo its fees for the advisory work performed, which the watchdog
estimates at millions of dollars…. [my yellow highlighting]
