Category: ESG

West Virginia Notifies Six Banks They May Be Breaking State’s Fossil Fuel Anti-Boycott Law

Six banks have been warned by the West Virginia State Treasury that they may be in violation of a new law preventing the state from doing business with financial institutions boycotting energy companies. The office told The Epoch Times it had sent out letters on June 10, but did not share the banks’ names on…


EXCLUSIVE: West Virginia Notifies Six Banks They May Be Breaking State’s Fossil Fuel Anti-Boycott Law

Six banks have been warned by the West Virginia State Treasury that they may be in violation of a new law preventing the state from doing business with financial institutions boycotting energy companies. The office told The Epoch Times it had sent out letters on June 10, but did not share the banks’ names on…


Fearing Looming Bubble, State Treasurers Square Up Against ESG’s ‘Invisible Fist’

State treasurers spoke out against the imposition of environmental, social and governance (ESG) scoring on public money in a June 8 press conference, with one official comparing it to the social justice-driven push for universal homeownership that helped trigger the Great Recession. “I would be very concerned about investing in green energy right now,” said…


SEC Climate Proposal Violates First Amendment to Constitution: Law Professor

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) proposed rules to mandate climate-related disclosures from companies abridge freedom of speech and would “create controversy by imposing a political viewpoint,” a law professor asserted in a June 1 letter to the agency. “It’s almost as though the three commissioners who pushed this rule forward don’t take seriously their…


State Officials Fight Wall Street to Protect Pensioners From ESG ‘Scam’

After failing to advance their agenda by passing laws in Congress, progressives have found that they can impose their will on Americans just as effectively through our financial system. And while some state officials have recently started to fight back, they are heavily outgunned. The world’s largest asset managers, BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard, have…


A Global ESG System Is Almost Here: We Should Be Worried

Commentary Day two of the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, started off on a concerning note. Some of the chief architects of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores met during a session called “Global ESG for Global Resilience,” and have clearly decided to double down on their objective for a new…


Who Are These Mysterious ‘Activists’ We Keep Hearing About?

Commentary Anonymous activists seem to be surfacing in news reports with ever-greater frequencies. Activists are involved in a wide array of issues, but having just written about the widespread adoption of ESG scores, I am struck by the repeated references to activists who are promoting ESG. For example, The Wall Street Journal recently reported, “BlackRock’s…


CSR and ESG Versus Private Property and Free Markets

Commentary To whom are corporations accountable? For most of our history, the answer was straightforward. Legally, corporations were accountable to ownership—that is, corporate officers had a fiduciary obligation to strive to earn profits for corporate shareholders. Economically, corporations were (and remain) accountable to their customers—that is, they need to serve customers well by providing good…


Elon Musk Calls ESG ‘A Scam’ After S&P Index Drops Tesla

Elon Musk called the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scoring “a scam” in a series of Tweets on May 18, citing S&P Global’s inclusion of ExxonMobil Corporation in its ESG Index while his own electric car company, Tesla Motors, was removed. “Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social & governance (ESG)…


‘ESG Is a Scam’: New GOP Voter Elon Musk

Elon Musk called the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scoring “a scam” in a series of Tweets on May 18, citing S&P Global’s inclusion of ExxonMobil Corporation in its ESG Index while his own electric car company, Tesla Motors, was removed. “Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social & governance (ESG)…