Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks outlined the dangers of so-called environmental, social and governance standards in an exclusive interview with MRC Business.
Treasurer Oaks (R-U.T) made clear that everyday Americans should not underestimate the danger of environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards in a May 2 interview with MRC Business. [bold, links added]
“I would say [ESG] is the issue for 2022 and beyond.” He continued: “It’s the number one issue without question. It is the greatest threat to our freedoms in America today without question.”
Oaks also explained what makes ESG different from other more traditional values-based investment strategies, like socially responsible investing or impact investing.
“What makes ESG different is that it engages with companies and engages with the market to drive a political agenda.” [Emphasis added.]
Treasurer Oaks had a message for the American people on ESG: Speak out and fight back.
“I think it’s very important that” everyday Americans “let their voices be heard,” Oaks said.
He advised that if Americans “stop doing business with a company because you disagree with … how they’re politicizing the marketplace — don’t just stop doing business with them, tell them why.”
Oaks didn’t let up, and called for Americans to vocally reject woke corporate politics:
“[M]ake it clear that you do not want your money politicized.”
As for leftist companies like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, Oaks advised that Americans tell their investment advisors “that you do not want your money with those managers because” they’ve “consolidated power and are weaponizing that money against all of us.”
The political agenda behind ESG rules is often anti-freedom, anti-America, and opposed to the free market, Oaks said.
I am increasingly convinced that corporate ESG is the Devil Incarnate
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2022
The consequences have been catastrophic, resulting in high gas prices and inflation: “There are a lot of projects in the United States — profitable projects in the oil and gas industry — that are not being funded because of ESGs. And that’s preventing the market” from rebalancing.
Oaks called attention to how ESG is holding the energy industry hostage by withholding capital and even said that “[t]here is no free-market capitalism today in the United States.”
The reason? “There’s just not enough money that is being allowed to go” to the oil and gas industry, Oaks said.
Utah lawmakers and politicians, including Treasurer Oaks, signed an April 21 letter that slammed rating giant S&P Global for “politicizing the rating’s process. It is deeply counterproductive, misleading, potentially damaging to the entities being rated, and possibly illegal.”
S&P gave higher ESG scores to Russian and Chinese-controlled energy companies than to American energy producers like ExxonMobil and Chevron.
Oaks elaborated on why he signed the letter during the interview. He cautioned against rating systems like S&P giving out political scores on states or any other entity in the country.
“It is incredibly dangerous, even in the corporate world, because then you’re driving groupthink; you’ve destroyed the capital markets; you are bypassing our legislative process.”
He continued: “You’ve essentially traded in the Constitution for ESG factors because it is the substitution of our pluralistic institutions for centralized control.”
Treasurer Oaks wasn’t the only figure to ring the alarm bell and warn others about woke ESG regulations.
Blaze Media founder and longtime radio host Glenn Beck defined ESG as a murky set of investment standards that can be used to punish political opponents.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk even called ESG regulations “the Devil Incarnate” on Twitter.
Read more at NewsBusters
Adding more complexity , more costs causing higher prices while we are in a recession .
Good luck with that .
The people implementing environmental, social and governance standards, ESG, were not elected. They were not appointed by elected officials. They are self appointed elites. Yet, their policies are having adverse impact on the county and its citizens. Even with the election fraud and strong censorship that we have today, they know they can not implement their radical agendas. As such they are using ESG to force a top down implementation. This is the way Communist China works. However, with China, at least as far as energy is concerned, the policies are mostly beneficial to the people. I have to say mostly because the particulate air pollution certainly is not benefiting the Chinese. ESG is just one example of how we are living in a dictatorship of the self appointed elites.
Global Warming Climate Change just a a excuse by the Globalists/Liberal Democrats to bring about the World Government which is the real reason the UN was ounded