Robby Starbuck, Tennessee political commentator and documentary filmmaker, recently took on a role at the Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow to lead the conservative think tank’s capital markets initiative.
The Heritage Foundation’s capital markets initiative “encourages businesses to prioritize merit and ethics over divisive agendas that are unethical, immoral, and illegal—like so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies,” according to the think tank.
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A new report analyzing electric utility APS’ “Net Zero” Preferred Plan, which was approved by the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) last year, found that the plan to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions caused by fossil fuels by 2038 will increase prices for ratepayers by at least 45 percent and cause blackouts. The Arizona Free Enterprise Club and AZ Liberty Network issued their findings last week about the aggressive plan to switch to solar and wind power.
The report, authored by Isaac Orr and Mitch Rolling, co-founders of Always On Energy Research (AOER), emphasized, “The most important thing to know about Arizona Public Service (APS) is that it is not a private company, it is a government-approved monopoly utility.” Families who live within its territory do not have any other option for electricity.
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The Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative announced Monday it is suspending activities. The move comes after BlackRock, with $11.5 trillion in assets under management, joined an exodus of mega-firms leaving net-zero groups.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti on Friday celebrated a legal settlement between the State of Tennessee and BlackRock, Inc., which resulted in the company changing its policies related to Environment, Social, and Governance investing.
“Tennessee beats ESG,” wrote Skrmetti in a post to the social media platform X containing a link to the settlement. “BlackRock’s stringent obligations under this settlement ensure Tennesseans will not see their retirement funds used to support radical ideologies they oppose.”
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Citigroup and Bank of America announced Tuesday that they were leaving the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, Reuters reported.
Then on Thursday, Morgan Stanley announced, it, too was terminating its membership with the group, according to Bloomberg.
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As part of an investigation into possible collusion with climate activists, the House Judiciary Committee has sent letters to 60 U.S.-based asset management companies asking them for information about activities related to their membership with the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and Net Zero Asset Managers.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies have taken a beating this year, and with the incoming Trump administration expected to create an unfriendly atmosphere for ESG, next year will likely not go any better for “woke capitalism,” as the movement is sometimes called.
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Not soon after the general election, and within two weeks of each other, two major financial institutions have left a United Nations Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA).
This is after they joined three years ago, pledging to require environmental social governance standards (ESG) across their platforms, products and systems.
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The State of Texas has been a leader in the pushback against environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies, passing some of the first anti-ESG laws in the country. Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton moved to protect the coal industry from what Paxton says is an effort on the part of large investment firms to not only shrink coal companies — but also unfairly profit from them.
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A package of bills to ensure employee benefits plans prioritize financial well-being over “woke” policies has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.
Outgoing Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Good sponsored the Protecting Americans’ Investments from Woke Policies Act and the No Discrimination in My Benefits Act, which cleared the House 217-206.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti provided an update on prominent lawsuits his office has filed under his leadership and discussed his goals for the remainder of his eight-year term during an exclusive sit-down interview this week on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Skrmetti, who began serving as attorney general in 2022 after being appointed by the Tennessee Supreme Court, said, “I’ve been blessed with a great team and there is a lot of work for us to do.”
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We just passed the two-year anniversary of Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti taking office, and it has to be said that he has exceeded even the loftiest expectations we conservatives could have had. For the first time, we have an Attorney General who is on the same page with the Legislature and the vast majority of the population, fighting the fights we want to see fought, and doing us proud in the process. Now seems like a fine moment to reflect on the gift we’ve been given, and marvel at what we might come in his next six years, if he gets the resources to keep this up.
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Indiana’s state securities regulator issued a cease and desist order against BlackRock Thursday, accusing the investment giant of fraudulent actions related to its ESG products and offerings. The company denies the allegations.
According to the Indiana Securities Division, BlackRock has repeatedly made false and misleading statements to Indiana investors with regards to the company’s ESG products. Indiana accuses BlackRock of pushing ESG factors on portfolio companies and informing clients they would see better long-term returns on their investments through ESG-backed funds. Though, according to the order, there was little to no evidence to substantiate the claim.
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Attorney General Jason Miyares determined in a Friday legal opinion the Virginia Retirement System (VRS) is prohibited by Virginia law from making investments based on controversial environment, social and governance (ESG) scores.
In a statement posted to the Virginia Attorney General website, Miyares said Virginians “spent decades working hard” for their retirement, and the commonwealth’s investments must be driven by financial data and not ESG scores as a result.
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BlackRock began renaming environmental, social and governance (ESG) earlier this year. It’s now calling it “transition investing.”
The company recently updated its climate and decarbonization stewardship guidelines. The document makes no mention of ESG, but it shows in many ways, the world’s largest investment manager with $10 trillion in assets under management is still pursuing many of the same goals.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said his consumer protection lawsuit against BlackRock’s Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing will force the company to disclose if it is mixing ESG factors when making investment decisions instead of focusing on financial factors relative to the rate of return.
Skrmetti filed his lawsuit against BlackRock in December 2023, alleging that the hedge fund has misled consumers in Tennessee about the scale and impacts of its ESG initiatives for several years.
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Some Republicans on the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) are resisting calls to stop Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) plans by the utilities they regulate, and the controversy has extended to the upcoming fall election.
Three of the five seats are up for election: two are wide open, and the third is held by Commissioner Lea Márquez Peterson, who is seeking reelection. While two new Republican candidates appear to be running as a slate with Márquez Peterson, newcomer Christy Kelly is running alone on a platform that emphasizes stopping ESG, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and the Green New Deal.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster ceremonially signed a measure mandating the state’s retirement system to consider only “pecuniary factors” when making investment decisions.
H.3690, the ESG Pension Protection Act, effectively bans the South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission from weighing environmental, social and governance factors and orders the system to maximize the highest rate of return for beneficiaries. The state House passed the measure by a 103-5 margin, while the state Senate passed it 45-0.
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American companies are reversing the multiyear trend of hiring more employees in roles related to environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues in an effort to increase profitability and address investor pushback, according to The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. companies shed 3,071 employees with positions related to ESG in December while only adding 2,897, continuing the trend that has been seen in half of the months in the last year of a net loss of ESG positions, according to the WSJ. The shift is in response to investors pulling their funds from companies heavily involved in ESG practices and placing their money in firms where they can get higher returns.
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Bill Ackman, the highly successful hedge fund manager and Harvard graduate whose criticism of Claudine Gay’s history of plagiarism led to her resignation as President of Harvard University, published a lengthy tweet on his X account Sunday evening responding to an article about him published by The Washington Post earlier in the day. Here is that post in its entirety:
I am sure all of us have had the experience of reading a story about a subject you know well and finding it replete with inaccuracies and falsehoods. One then turns the page and reads an article about a subject one knows less well and makes the mistake of believing that this other story is accurate. I am guilty of this sin. I am sadly repeatedly reminded to mistrust what I read in the media, and I am not alone. Destruction of confidence in our media is contributing to societal breakdown, and that is a very unfortunate state of affairs.
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Trust in banks has plummeted. From 2019-2022, the percentage of people who believe banks and financial institutions have a positive effect on the country fell among Republicans (from 63 to 38 percent) and Independents (by nine points). The problem grows every time a right-of-center group is debanked. Recognizing the problem, “rebuilding trust” is the theme of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The path to rebuild trust in finance is simple—keep politics out of banking.
In spite of an alleged priority of building trust, the largest banks are aligning themselves with radical United Nations (UN) climate initiatives linked to radical efforts to reduce Africa’s population and destroy Sri Lankan agriculture.
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Tom Pappert, lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, joined Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss his recent article on the Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner’s omission on a letter concerning Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies being pushed on American farmers.
On Tuesday, Pappert reported that Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Dr. Charlie Hatcher did not sign a letter sent by 12 states to the heads of six elite banks warning that their “Net-Zero Banking Alliance” (NZBA) will force ESG policies that would have a “catastrophic impact” on farmers.
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The Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner, Dr. Charlie Hatcher, was not among the top agriculture officials from 12 different states who signed a letter on Monday that warned the heads of six elite banks that their “Net-Zero Banking Alliance” (NZBA) will force economically destructive Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) policies on American farmers.
The Tennessee Star contacted Hatcher’s office by phone and email to ask why he was not among the agriculture officials behind the letter, and to ascertain whether he is concerned by the claim that banks are foisting ESG policies on farmers, but did not receive an immediate response.
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In an advertisement on X, formerly Twitter, the hedge fund BlackRock is touting its investments in the state of Tennessee.
“BlackRock invested in the future of Tennessee,” the ad says. “On behalf of our clients, BlackRock has invested over $36.5 billion in public companies across Tennessee and nearly 1 in 12 Tennesseans benefit from the public pensions we manage.”
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For the first time in the United States, an investment firm is being sued for its misleading Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investment strategies, and our state is leading the charge.
Tennessee State Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti accused BlackRock, Inc. of deceiving Tennesseans by downplaying their ESG-related investment goals and pressuring corporate boards to do the same.
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Conservative Arizona Corporation Commissioner (ACC) Jim O’Connor is not running for reelection to the ACC, prompting other conservatives to jump into the race. Additionally, progressive Commissioner Anna Tovar is up for reelection. Christy Kelly, a grassroots conservative, recently entered the race, and is running on a platform that includes stopping ESG at the utility companies, something the ACC has not aggressively taken action on. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, the three key factors when measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of an investment in a business or company.
She identifies as part of the #WalkAway movement as a former Democrat who became a Republican. Kelly told The Arizona Sun Times, “I like to say I’ve always been conservative — I just didn’t know it. Black folks are naturally conservative, we were just brainwashed.”
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Bonds that consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors for their investors made up just 2% of all bond issuance in the U.S., the lowest point in terms of market share since 2020 after also declining in 2022, according to Bloomberg.
ESG bond issuance as a percentage of the market reached an all-time high in 2021 and is not expected by analysts to reach that same high in 2024 as interest rates make the bond market pricier and backlash to the ESG label inhibits sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. ESG has come under fire by conservatives who see it as a left-wing initiative infecting the financial world, most recently leading Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, to send subpoenas to financial firms Vanguard, Arjuna Capital, BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors over alleged ESG collusion, arguing it violates antitrust law.
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Esteemed former Vanderbilt professor, renowned scholar, and all-star panelist Dr. Carol Swain joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Tuesday to discuss the growing scandal involving Harvard’s Claudine Gay and increasingly difficult-to-defend allegations of plagiarism by the Ivy League school’s president.
Swain contends that Gay failed to credit her for sections of the book Black Faces, Black Interests, accusing her of derivative work since her dissertation, which Swain claims builds upon her own groundbreaking research.
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Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti appeared in-studio on Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy, to discuss the first-of-its-kind lawsuit his office filed Monday against financial services giant BlackRock over alleged violations of consumer protection laws.
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Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti appeared in-studio on Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy, where he laid out the reasons why BlackRock’s alleged double standards that they are pushing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives that effectively force companies to shift their priorities are not just afoul consumer protection laws.
If left unchecked, Skrmetti argues, the opaque and unaccountable nature of corporate policymaking threatens the foundational principles of self-governance.
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Never before has so much ‘infrastructure’ been funded and so little built.
Unless, that is, you label Pete Buttegieg’s ‘paternity’ leave as ‘human infrastructure.’ Which, by the way, is exactly what the Biden administration did with its trillion dollar infrastructure boondoggle in 2021.
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Republican Tennessee Attorney General (AG) Jonathan Skrmetti filed a consumer protection lawsuit Monday against BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager and a leading proponent of Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing.
The consumer protection suit alleges that BlackRock has misled Tennessean consumers about the scale and impacts of its ESG initiatives for several years. The suit further alleges that BlackRock’s own policies and corporate voting records demonstrate that its ESG push bleeds into financial products that are marketed as non-ESG funds, despite the company’s statements that it allocates capital where its clients request as a fiduciary.
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“Anti-woke economic terrorists have now wiped out $5 trillion in stock value.”
That was a headline from Afru.com bemoaning the sideways performance of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) funds the past year or so, accusing anyone opposed to ESG with inflicting “economic terrorism” and “erod[ing] financial portfolios of color” as “global investments in ethical companies have nosedived by nearly $5 trillion over the past two years.”
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Consumer and Republican backlash against Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investments has increased dramatically in the past year as states, Congress and presidential candidates have taken on the issue, promising to rein in the largely green-conscious movement of capital amid spiraling energy and food costs since 2021.
Boycotts of brands such as Bud Light, Disney and Target, coupled with statements by Blackrock CEO Larry Fink that he no longer wanted to call these so-called sustainable investments ESG— at Aspen Ideas Festival on June 25 Fink said “I’m not going to use the word ESG because it’s been misused by the far left and the far right… we talk a lot about decarbonization, we talk a lot about governance … or social issues, if that’s something we need to address…”—and reported outflows from ESG funds in 2023 have painted a gloomy picture for green and socially conscious investing.
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Despite the controversiality of the curriculum, business schools are still following the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiative.
The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance defines ESG as an effort that “grew out of investment philosophies clustered around sustainability and, thereafter, socially responsible investing,” though “there is no single list of ESG goals or examples, and ESG concepts often overlap.”
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The conversation about the new book, The Adversity of Diversity with author and all-star panelist Carol Swain continues in-studio on Wednesday’s episode of The Tennessee Star Report. Swain dives into the ‘why’ of her newest work and details how CEO’s and business owners now embroiled in the untenable web of DEI and CRT can escape its grip and return to the core mission of their business. TRANSCRIPT Michael Patrick Leahy: 7:33 AM – broadcasting live from our studios on Music Row in Nashville, Tennessee in studio. Aaron Gulbransen, the Executive Director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition; and our very good friend, former professor at Vanderbilt University, all-star panelists here on The Tennessee Star Report and author of new book, The Adversity of Diversity. Carol, you were talking during the break about how our listeners can help move you towards The New York Times bestseller list. What’s the best way for them to do that? Carol Swain: The best way to do that is to purchase the book at an independent bookstore. Amazon doesn’t count and unfortunately, Christian bookstores don’t count – and this is only for the first week or so. It’s important to get orders from all…
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Author and all-star panelist Dr. Carol M. Swain joined The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to introduce listeners to her brand-new book: The Adversity of Diversity: How Real Unity Training can Promote Healing in a Post-Affirmative Action World. TRANSCRIPT Michael Patrick Leahy: 7:18 AM; in studio, the executive director of Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, Aaron Gulbransen; and our very good friend, all-star panelist friend – longtime friend – former Vanderbilt professor, esteemed colleague, Carol Swain. Good morning, Carol. Carol Swain: Good morning. Always. It’s a pleasure to be here. Michael Patrick Leahy: It’s always great to see you. You have a new book out? Carol Swain: I do. And the official release state is today and the title is, The Adversity of Diversity: How Real Unity Training can Promote Healing in a Post-Affirmative Action World. Michael Patrick Leahy: What a great title – and so needed. Alan Dershowitz wrote the foreword on this. Carol Swain: He did, and I should mention that my friend Mike Towle is the collaborator. So he, I had a co-author with the book because we had to get it out very quickly. And the book is important. You know I have –…
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Amid growing criticism of its environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment practices, BlackRock has announced that it will offer retail investors in its largest exchange-traded fund (ETF) the opportunity to participate in its “Voting Choice” program. Open to institutional clients since January 2022, this program allows investors to choose from a limited set of options to guide BlackRock in voting their shares. While perhaps an effective PR tool, Voting Choice is little more than a ruse that neither empowers investors nor diminishes BlackRock’s power to impose its ESG goals on American businesses.
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Several leading American asset managers have decreased their support for environmental, social and governance (ESG) resolutions since 2021, according to a new report by InfluenceMap, a nonprofit that tracks climate policies in Western corporations.
InfluenceMap’s report assigned BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street and Fidelity environmental stewardship grades of C+ or lower, which indicates that each firm exhibits “a lack of effective climate stewardship processes and use of shareholder authority to engage companies to transition” to a green energy, net-zero carbon emissions future. The report also noted that 2022 saw a “considerable” drop in corporate support for ambitious green shareholder resolutions, a development that coincides with increased Republican scrutiny of corporate ESG policies and mandates.
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Amid rising concerns about the liberal political agenda driving environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment decisions at the expense of retirement income, U.S. Representative Zach Nunn (R-IA-03) has introduced the “Protecting Retirees’ Savings Act.”
The bill, according to proponents, will help eliminate conflicts of interest for financial managers that cost investors by lowering investment returns.
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It’s a simple ruling: “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”
On June 29, the Supreme Court affirmed Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S. Code § 2000d’s prohibition on racial discrimination in federally funded programs, including higher education, at both public and private universities, in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision.
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Two years ago, efforts by climate activists and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investors to block investment in oil and gas production by Western companies appeared to have received a seal of approval from no less an authority than the International Energy Agency (IEA), when it published Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. As a result, attempts to achieve net zero carbon emissions (NZE) by 2050 became central to the “E” in ESG and the IEA’s net zero roadmap has come to define the NZE baseline for energy companies.
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The big news in energy this week is that BlackRock CEO Larry Fink says he is no longer using the term “ESG” in his business communications. Even more, Mr. Fink is now “ashamed” to be a participant in the debate on the issue. At least, that’s what he initially said on Sunday to an audience at the Aspen Ideas Festival, where he was a speaker.
“I’m ashamed of being part of this conversation,” Fink said as quoted by Axios. But almost as soon as he made the admission, Fink took it all back when pressed by his session’s moderator. “I never said I was ashamed,” he said, even though he had just actually said that very thing. “I’m not ashamed. I do believe in conscientious capitalism.”
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As a young boy, I lived for a time under the rule of a totalitarian regime when visiting my parents’ homeland of Iran during the 1980s. It was only a few years after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, and the despotic new ruler, Ruhollah Khomeini, was investing heavily in his cultural propaganda machine. The Ayatollah’s dubious aim, like any new totalitarian, was to erase the proud culture of ancient Iran and replace it with one new and ideologically approved.
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Is the public finally waking up to the inherent absurdities taking place in the energy space in the U.S. and across the Western world in recent years? Recent votes taken on ESG and climate change-related shareholder initiatives at major oil company annual board meetings indicate that may well be the case.
Though it has received scant attention across the legacy news media in general, the Financial Times reported recently that such shareholder initiatives were overwhelmingly rejected by shareholders of both ExxonMobil and Chevron, with most receiving less than 10 percent support. Similar initiatives in the previous few years would typically generate support in the 30-40 percent range, with a handful even gaining majority support.
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has sent letters to ten major asset managers demanding information regarding how environmental, social, or governance (ESG) factors are incorporated into their investment decisions, according to Reuters.
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Environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment standards are a hot topic among Republican lawmakers across the U.S. who see it as a political move to force a progressive agenda.
Democrats, on the other hand, see it as a smart investing strategy.
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Governor Bill Lee signed a bill Wednesday that requires the Tennessee Treasurer to make investment decisions based on financial factors – not based on environmental, social, or governance (ESG) factors.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
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Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida fired back at Republican critics of his efforts to rein in big businesses, calling them “corporatists.”
DeSantis signed legislation May 2 that prohibited state agencies and local governments from considering Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors when issuing bonds, barred banks from considering “social credit” when making loan decisions and prohibited discrimination on the basis of political, social or religious ideology. Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump have criticized DeSantis, a potential 2024 candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, over the feud with Disney that started after DeSantis signed parental rights legislation in March 2022 over the company’s opposition.
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Increased politicization of “environmental, social and governance” (ESG) factors in investment has resulted in one side claiming it only promotes social and political objectives, and the other side claiming that ESG is always relevant to making sound investment decisions.
President Biden’s veto of a Congressional resolution, regarding recently finalized amendments to a 2020 Department of Labor (DOL) administrative rule on retirement security, has brought ESG to the forefront again. The DOL’s amendments address how fiduciaries of a person’s 401(k)s and private pension funds make decisions about their retirement savings and the role of ESG in making those investment decisions. The DOL, under ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974), regulates private retirement plans. ERISA covers roughly $12 trillion in retirement savings for 150 million Americans.
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