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West Virginia continues ESG pushback, turns attention to proxy advisory services (2023)
| Environmental, social, and corporate governance |
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| • What is ESG? • Enacted ESG legislation • Arguments for and against ESG • Opposition to ESG • Federal ESG rules • ESG legislation tracker • Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's weekly ESG newsletter |
West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore (R), one of the first state officials to push back against ESG investing in general and asset management giant BlackRock in particular, did an interview last week with The Epoch Times in which he discussed his state’s next steps to oppose ESG through legislation aimed at proxy advisory services:
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In a Jan. 25 interview with The Epoch Times, West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore outlined a new state bill intended to ensure that proxy voting for shareholders isn’t a vehicle for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles that undercut the interest of those shareholders. “ESG is obviously a nonsensical investment strategy that has been distorting the free market for quite a while,” Moore said. He spoke to The Epoch Times after telling Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo about that proxy voting legislation, intended to counteract the top-down push for ESG through new requirements for the state’s investment boards. “This is going to mandate that our shares are voted in the best financial interests of our pension beneficiaries,” Moore said in a Jan. 24 interview on Bartiromo’s program, “Mornings with Maria.” The announcement comes just days after West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey expressed concern over ESG to the twin titans of proxy advisory services, Glass Lewis and International Shareholder Services (ISS). The two are believed to control more than 90 percent of the U.S. market share for voting advice. Morrissey wrote that the two firms “appear intent to punish American companies for being out of step with net zero.” The West Virginia legislation, House Bill 2862, is meant to keep proxy advisories from using their power to advance left-wing political goals on hot-button topics ranging from fossil fuel production to diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE). Moore told The Epoch Times the new bill would also improve transparency by requiring the West Virginia Investment Management Board to publicize every shareholder vote from either the board or its fiduciaries.[1] |
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See also
- Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
- Economy and Society: Ballotpedia's ESG newsletter
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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