Environmental, social, and governance policies are the Left’s latest political tool to use businesses and financial institutions to advance progressive ideology in American society.
The left is pushing the businesses and financial industry to conform to woke ideologies on gender, race, and environment. Labeled as ESG (environmental, social, and governance) policies, these new guidelines erode the fabric of free market in which so many Americans have staked their livelihoods.
What is ESG?
ESG is short for environmental, social, governance—and the term ESG can be applied in several ways:
- Advocates on the Left commonly describe ESG as criteria for making strategic investment decisions to aid environmental or social causes one cares about
- Financial firms now promote ESG-driven investment strategies, where they grade companies based on their ESG policies and make investment decisions based on how high a company’s ESG score is.
- Federal and state governments have begun passing laws and regulations mandating ESG reporting from companies.
ESG is a political tool used by progressives to advance Leftist ideology in businesses and financial institutions. From requiring NASDAQ-listed companies to appoint board members based on race and sex, to requiring greenhouse gas emissions to be reported, ESG is destroying our free market and threatens both American interests and our cultural fabric of freedom, choice and liberty.
ESG policies are a thinly veiled attempt to radically transform corporations into social justice warriors. Pro-ESG businesses support the Left’s “woke” culture war to redefine gender, promote critical race theory, and cancel conservatives.
Traditionally, it’s been the role of business to create a meaningful return for investors. In the process of generating profits, they create jobs, develop innovative new products, and provide needed services.
But companies that adopt ESG policies risk failing Americans who have invested their savings in the company and hurting Americans by moving our society into dangerous dependence on foreign oil, creating social credit scores, and demanding investment decisions based on pro-abortion policies.
Who does ESG hurt?
Everyone suffers – customers, employees, employers, and investors.
Under ESG, traditional American energy like oil and gas is punished as part of the Left’s climate alarmism. Customers pay higher prices and receive inferior goods and services as companies become more focused on “social justice” than meeting the customer’s needs.
Employees are subjected to critical race theory trainings and deal with “woke” gender-identity theory from the boardroom down to the factory floor. This woke culture spreads, creating divisive schools and an unhealthy society for our children.
Employers who aren’t supportive of ESG receive low ESG credit scores, which will be used by the Left to justify boycotts. Over time, these social credit scores could lead to businesses being financially cut off—losing access to loans, banking services, or even stock exchanges.
As businesses suffer and underperform, investors will lose out on profits and gains. This affects every American saving for retirement with stocks in a 401k or pension. Millions of state employees and individuals in the private sector will be negatively impacted.
ESG hurts everyone.
Additional Resources:
- Heritage Action: One-pager on ESG
- Jessica Anderson: Biden’s woke attack on energy
- The Heritage Foundation: What Is Wrong With “ESG” Wokeism
- The Heritage Foundation: Why Corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance Enforcement Is Self-Reinforcing Scam
Here’s how state lawmakers can fight ESG
