A majority of Americans oppose controversial environment, social, and governance (ESG) policies, which state financial officers across the nation have committed to fighting, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
A survey conducted by TargetPoint, exclusively obtained by Breitbart News, found that 56 percent of Americans agree that “ESG is a highly subjective, politically charged idea that is forcing progressive policies on everyday Americans resulting in higher prices for nearly everything.” In contrast, 27 percent disagreed with that statement, and 17 percent did not know enough to register an opinion.
Eighty-eight percent agreed that the government should focus more on protecting individual rights so that Americans can achieve prosperity, and 86 percent agreed that open debate and civil discourse should be encouraged to find solutions to financial and policy challenges.
ESG has become the latest vector through which Wall Street asset managers such as BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, Baillie Gifford & Company, and others push companies to adopt leftist policies they otherwise would not back. Asset managers often push companies to adopt policies intended to fight climate change, diversity requirements, and other policies advocating for racial justice.
O.J. Oleka, the CEO of the State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF), said in a statement to Breitbart News that the poll reveals that Americans are increasingly tired of corporations becoming politicized.
He said:
This survey shows that most Americans are rooting for what our financial officers are doing. They see state financial officers defending their hard-earned tax dollars from being weaponized against them and their families, whether it’s costly ESG activism or even the CCP. Our financial officers are also leading the fight to stop banks from denying service to American citizens based simply on their political views. It’s no wonder they’ve earned the public’s trust.
When asked who they might trust most to make the right decisions on fiscal and financial matters, 47 percent pointed to state financial officers, 31 percent said governors, and 22 percent said congressional lawmakers.
Americans trust state financial officers more than governors, attorneys general, and legislators when it comes managing a state’s finances, overseeing state investments, ensuring taxpayer dollars are efficiently spent, and ensuring financial transparency.
Many large asset managers such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street have infamously pushed controversial policies through proxy voting.
Here are some of BlackRock and Baillie Gifford’s most egregious proxy votes:
- In April 2021, BlackRock, which owns 7.5 percent of Abbott Labs, pushed the company to publish a report disclosing the company’s plan to promote racial justice. BlackRock pushed for the move against the wishes of Abbott’s leadership.
- In a comment about its vote for the proposal, BlackRock commented, “We recognize the Company’s efforts to date, but believe that supporting the proposal may accelerate company’s progress on material social issues.”
- In May 2021, BlackRock urged United Parcel Services (UPS), of which Blackrock owns 7.3 percent, to issue a report on how the company plans to reduce emissions in alignment with the Paris Agreement’s goal of reducing global temperatures by at least 1.5 degrees Celsius.
- BlackRock voted for this proposal, commenting, “We are supportive of the company’s efforts to date with respect to this material climate issue but believe that voting in favor may accelerate the company’s progress.”
- In May 2022, BlackRock, which owns 6.8 percent of Home Depot, pushed the company to adopt a shareholder proposal to “oversee an independent racial equity audit analyzing Home Depot’s adverse impacts on nonwhite stakeholders and communities of color. Input from civil rights organizations, employees, and customers should be considered in determining the specific matters to be analyzed.”
- BlackRock commented, “We believe it is in the best interests of shareholders to have access to greater disclosure on this issue.”
State financial officers have fought back against this sort of leftist encroachment in corporate America.
The same year, Oklahoma State Treasurer Todd Russ (R) blacklisted 13 financial institutions deemed to be boycotting the energy industry.
In 2022, Glenn Hegar, the Texas state comptroller, banned BlackRock and nine other finance firms from working with the Lone Star State after they declared their hostility to fossil fuels.
“The environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) movement has produced an opaque and perverse system in which some financial companies no longer make decisions in the best interest of their shareholders or their clients, but instead use their financial clout to push a social and political agenda shrouded in secrecy,” Hegar said in a statement at the time.
The strong pushback against ESG, in part from state financial officers, led BlackRock CEO Larry Fink in 2023 to lament that he no longer uses the term “ESG” as it has been “weaponized.”
“We have a mandate to keep fighting to protect the American people’s money from the disaster that is woke political ideology,” Oleka concluded.
Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks, the State Financial Officers Foundation national chairman, told Breitbart News, “These results are certainly encouraging, but not surprising. Families in Utah and nationwide care deeply about their financial security, not just for themselves but for future generations,” he said. “They see radical forces and ideologies being financed with their dollars and rightly expect us to push back. That’s what every SFOF member is doing.”
“We won’t rest until these political movements are no longer threatening Americans with our own money to put far-left politics over retirement profits,” he vowed.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
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