{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://www.warren.senate.gov/oversight/letters/warren-colleagues-examine-role-of-private-equity-firm-blackstone-in-deforestation-of-amazon-rainforest", "Warren, Colleagues Examine Role of Private Equity Firm Blackstone in Deforestation of Amazon Rainforest", "2019-12-16", "2019", "2019-12", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Elizabeth Warren", "W000817", "www.warren.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "December 16, 2019\n\t\t\t Warren, Colleagues Examine Role of Private Equity Firm Blackstone in Deforestation of Amazon Rainforest \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t Private-Equity Owned Brazilian Logistics Company Has Played Major Role in Destruction of Rainforest\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t Text\r\nof Letter (PDF) Washington, D.C. - United States Senator Elizabeth Warren\r\n(D-Mass.), member of the Senate Banking Committee; Representative Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.);\r\nHouse Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ral Grijalva (D-Ariz.); House\r\nNatural Resources Committee Vice Chair and National Parks, Forests, and Public\r\nLands Subcommittee Chair Deb Haaland (D-N.M.); Representatives Rashida Tlaib\r\n(D-Mich.) and Jess G. \"Chuy\" Garca (D-Ill.), members of the House\r\nFinancial Services Committee; and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), member\r\nof the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee; sent a letter to private\r\nequity firm Blackstone Group raising concerns about the firm's investments in\r\nHidrovias do Brasil, a company that is playing a significant role in the\r\nongoing destruction and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, which\r\nexacerbates the climate crisis. The letter, which continues Senator Warren's\r\ninvestigation into the effects of private equity investments in a variety of\r\nindustries, requested information about the firm's structure, business\r\npractices, and finances as they relate to Hidrovias and similar companies. Reports\r\nshow that Blackstone owns a significant stake in Hidrovias, a Brazilian\r\nlogistics company that does business in and around the Amazon rainforest,\r\nthrough direct investments and investments in a Brazilian private equity fund.\r\nHidrovias has contributed directly to Amazon deforestation by clearing hundreds\r\nof miles of forestland to modernize a controversial\r\nhighway, BR-163, that leads to a company-owned export terminal. The\r\ncontroversial highway is also indirectly contributing to deforestation by\r\nincentivizing farmers to increase exports and clear Amazon forestland to\r\ncultivate grains and soy. The Amazon rainforest accounts\r\nfor a quarter of the carbon absorbed by global forests annually, and it has\r\nsequestered as much as 140 billion tons of carbon in the ground. If destroyed\r\nthrough activities like clear-cutting or forest burning for roadbuilding or\r\nagricultural use, the rainforest could release the equivalent of up to 140\r\nyears of human carbon emissions. \"Given the immense global climate ramifications of deforestation in the\r\nAmazon rainforest, it is deeply troubling that U.S.-based private equity firms\r\nlike Blackstone have taken advantage of the weakening of Brazil's environmental\r\nsafeguards through your investments in the logistics and resource extraction\r\nindustries to boost short-term profits, at the expense of our global climate\r\nand Indigenous communities,\" wrote the lawmakers. In their letter, the lawmakers expressed concern with Blackstone's\r\ninvestments in Hidrovias, detailing the company's work on the construction and\r\ndevelopment of BR-163 and its contribution\r\nto deforestation. The lawmakers also criticized Blackstone for its attempts to\r\navoid responsibility for the role of Hidrovias in the deforestation of the\r\nAmazon rainforest. \"By financing a company that profits from this destruction, through\r\ndeveloping a road to export these agricultural goods, Blackstone's investments\r\nappear to pave the way for further deforestation and an exacerbated climate\r\ncrisis,\" the lawmakers continued. In July, Senator Warren and Representative Pocan, along with a number of\r\nDemocratic colleagues, introduced theStop\r\nWall Street Looting Act, a comprehensive bill to bring greater\r\nresponsibility to the private equity industry by holding private equity firms\r\nresponsible for the liabilities of companies under their control and requiring\r\ngreater transparency in private equity firms' practices. The lawmakers asked Blackstone to provide the disclosure documents and\r\ninformation required under the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, along with other\r\ninformation regarding the firm's investments and their environmental impacts.\r\nThe lawmakers requested a response to their letter by January 10, 2019. Earlier this year, Senator Warren joined her colleagues on a letter\r\ncalling for major companies and financial firms to wield their influence to\r\ncombat runaway deforestation in the Amazon. The senator also\r\nsigned a letter urging the White House to pressure the Bolsonaro government to\r\nprotect the Amazon rainforest from deforestation. Senator Warren has been a vocal critic of private equity abuses throughout\r\nher time in the Senate and is fighting for reforms that protect students,\r\nworkers, communities, and investors: \r\n Senators Warren, Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ron Wyden\r\n     (D-Ore.) and Congressman Pocansent\r\n     letters to three private equity firms investments in election\r\n     technology vendors, raising concerns about vulnerabilities and a lack of\r\n     transparency in the election technology industry and the poor condition of\r\n     voting machines and other election technology equipment. \r\n Senators Warren, Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), and Bernie\r\n     Sanders (I-Vt.)sentletters\r\n     to two major private equity-owned commercial institutional review boards\r\n     (IRBs), raising questions about whether for-profit IRBs are vulnerable to\r\n     conflicts of interest that could inhibit their ability to protect research\r\n     subjects, and whether the two companies are maintaining appropriate ethics\r\n     standards.\r\n Senators Warren and Brown, along with Representative\r\n     Pocan,sent\r\n     lettersto four private equity firms that currently invest, or\r\n     have recently invested in, companies providing nursing home care and other\r\n     long-term care services, noting research that shows facilities owned by\r\n     private equity firms provide worse care.\r\n Senators Warren, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Sanders,\r\n     along with Representatives Pocan, and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), sent a\r\n     letter to Ernst & Youngsharply\r\n     criticizinga misleading report the firm released in partnership\r\n     with the American Investment Council, a trade group for the private equity\r\n     industry, about the scope of private equity's influence in the economy.\r\n Senator Warren and Representatives Pocan and Lloyd\r\n     Doggett (D-Texas)wroteto\r\n     five private equity firms with investments in physician staffing and\r\n     emergency transport companies, questioning the role these companies play\r\n     in patients receiving exorbitant surprise bills for out-of-network medical\r\n     treatment.\r\n Senator Warren and Representatives Pocan and Alexandria\r\n     Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.)wroteto\r\n     five private equity firms that own companies providing support services to\r\n     prisons, including health care, food service, and telephone services,\r\n     noting how private equity firms deliver poor-quality food and services at\r\n     exorbitant prices, making huge profits off of incarcerated people, their\r\n     families, and taxpayers.\r\n Senator Warren and Representative Pocanwroteto\r\n     six private equity firms with current or recent holdings in for-profit\r\n     colleges, citing research about private equity's destructive role in\r\n     for-profit colleges and student outcomes.\r\n Senator Warren and Representative Dave Loebsack\r\n     (D-Iowa)opened\r\n     an investigation intoprivate equity firms behind some of the\r\n     country's largest manufactured housing communities to obtain information\r\n     about their use of predatory practices to boost profits in the communities\r\n     they own.\r\n Senator Warren and Representative Ocasio-CortezquestionedTreasury\r\n     Secretary Steven Mnuchin on his involvement in dubious financial engineering\r\n     and other managerial decisions that enriched investment company executives\r\n     while decimating Sears' long-term growth and sustainability -- ultimately\r\n     resulting in Sears' bankruptcy and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.\r\n Senator Warrenrequested\r\n     answersfrom Vornado Realty Trust and five major hedge funds on\r\n     their role in the liquidation of Toys \"R\" Us, which resulted in\r\n     30,000 workers losing their jobs without severance pay, after the company\r\n     went into bankruptcy as the result of a leveraged buyout in 2005.\r\n In June 2015, Senator Warren was an original co-sponsor\r\n     of theCarried\r\n     Interest Fairness Act, legislation to close the carried interest\r\n     loophole that allowed private equity fund managers to pay lower\r\n     taxes.The legislation was re-introduced in March 2019 and is\r\n     included in the Stop Wall Street Looting Act.\r\n ###\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t  \n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\t\n\t\t\tPrint\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tEmail\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tTweet\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n    \n\t\n\t\n    \n    \n    \n    \t\n    \t\n\t    \t  \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \n\t\t    \tPrevious Article", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": 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