ESG Scam! Critics Slam The Woke Investment Movement

Keneci Channel

The Environmental, Social and Governance, ESG standard is in reality a set of woke issues pushed as an investment guide, by a group of left-wing activist investors, asset managers and politicians. An arbitrary and sometimes financially illogical set of factors used as a measure of which company or business should attract investments.

Critics rightly argue that ESG -- and its 'social justice' wing, the 'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,' DEI, guidance -- is merely a tool used by left-wing globalists to advance their woke agenda in financial markets. They push companies to adopt ridiculous woke positions on issues like climate change and the LGTQ agenda. Big investment managers like BlackRock and Vanguard are among the main culprits.

One effect of the ESG push is that firms who do not fall in line may be denied investment funds. A recent example is the reckless push by ESG activists and some liberal western leaders, to divest from the oil and gas sector. The result? High energy prices and inflation, made worse by Russian invasion of Ukraine.

During an appearance this week on CNBC, entrepreneur and investor Vivek Ramaswamy pointed out the blatant hypocrisy in the ESG movement.

"One of the largest shareholders of PetroChina is none other than Blackrock," Ramaswamy told Squawk Box co-host Joe Kernen. "The firm is effectively saying 'ESG for thee, China for me.' That's not just bad for geopolitics, it's bad for the environment. This movement fails on every problem."

Commenting further on social media Ramaswamy wrote:

"The world’s largest asset managers coordinate with each other to tell oil companies to cut emissions. Consumers are left holding the bag with higher prices at the pump. We have a word for that in this country: it’s called an antitrust violation.

Large firms like BlackRock are using the capital of everyday citizens to advance agendas that most of those citizens disagree with. There’s a name for this behavior: it’s called a fiduciary breach."

Other prominent critics like Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have also called out the ESG movement.

Tesla was removed from the S&P 500’s ESG Index last month. The flimsy reason given for this move makes the political motivation behind it obvious.

Margaret Dorn of Indexology Blog wrote:

“A few of the factors contributing to its 2021 S&P DJI ESG Score were a decline in criteria level scores related to Tesla’s (lack of) low carbon strategy and codes of business conduct. In addition, a Media and Stakeholder Analysis, a process that seeks to identify a company’s current and potential future exposure to risks stemming from its involvement in a controversial incident, identified two separate events centered around claims of racial discrimination and poor working conditions at Tesla’s Fremont factory, as well as its handling of the NHTSA investigation after multiple deaths and injuries were linked to its autopilot vehicles. Both of these events had a negative impact on the company’s S&P DJI ESG Score at the criteria level, and subsequently its overall score. While Tesla may be playing its part in taking fuel-powered cars off the road, it has fallen behind its peers when examined through a wider ESG lens.”

This is hypocritical. Tesla has produced more electric vehicles than any other manufacturer, yet ExxonMobil and JPMorgan Chase rank among the S&P 500’s top ESG performers -- the former is the world’s largest investor in oil producers, and the latter ranks first among those producers.

“Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social & governance (ESG) by S&P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list! ESG is a scam,” Musk responded on Twitter. “It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.”

It is not lost on ESG critics and political observers that the left's hostility to Musk intensified after he announced a deal to acquire Twitter, and recently tweeted that he will be switching political parties because of Democrat Party's left-wing lurch.

“In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican,” he wrote in a May 18, tweet. “Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold.”

And in response to a Twitter user who alleged, “You don’t care about freedom, Elon. If you did you wouldn’t be supporting Donald Trump,” Musk wrote in a May 30 tweet: “I support free speech, but not any one candidate. In fact, I gave money to & voted for Hillary & then voted for Biden. However, given unprovoked attacks by leading Democrats against me & a very cold shoulder to Tesla & SpaceX, I intend to vote Republican in November.”

WATCH Vivek Ramaswamy's comments on CNBC