ESG Rules Equal ‘Stealth Socialism’
This article is an opinion piece from Bill Lockwood. Catch Patriotic Pulpit with Bill Lockwood weekly at 11 a.m. Saturdays on NewsTalk 1290.
According to an article from Reuters, “last March, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) unveiled plans to enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures for investors, as part of a growing awareness of the importance of environmental, social & governance (ESG) issues among public companies."
“The new disclosure rules would require listed companies to not only disclose risks that are ‘reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition, but also ‘to disclose information about its direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Scope 1) and indirect emissions from purchased electricity or other forms of energy (Scope 2),’ as well as certain types of GHG emissions ‘from upstream and downstream activities in its value chain (Scope 3)."
However, the article noted, given the Supreme Court’s June decision in West Virginia v. EPA “that limited federal regulation of power plant emissions, the timeline for final rules have been pushed back.” Nevertheless, the article assures us that “most investors support the core tenets of the new disclosure rules.” Many therefore expect the new rules to be finalized and an implementation process started.
What is ESG?
What exactly is ESG? Why is the our government pressing through the SEC that companies divulge ESG “investments?”
Investopedia describes it as follows:
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing refers to a set of standards for a company’s behavior used by socially conscious investors to screen potential investments. Environmental criteria consider how a company safeguards the environment, including corporate policies addressing climate change, for example. Social criteria examine how it manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities where it operates. Governance deals with a company’s leadership, executive pay, audits, internal control, and shareholder’s rights.
Values such as racial and gender diversity in the workforce (under “social criteria”) are added to “climate change impact” to round out the politically correct agenda.
Tom DeWeese boils it down at the American Policy Center on January 11 this year: “What ESG’s do in real life (as opposed to sick and twisted fairytales for the ignorant) is value companies by their perverted reality that is taking down any and all moral absolutes and promoting our world to a dystopia of disease, immorality, and pure evil.”
Why is it pure evil? DeWeese answers this question: “By restricting investment in production of oil and gas by Western producers, ESG increases the market power of non-Western producers, thereby enabling Putin’s weaponization of energy supplies. Net zero [carbon emissions, bl]—the holy grail of ESG—has turned out to be Russia’s most potent ally."
ESG is nothing but what Tom Czitron calls “Stealth Socialism” in his article for the Epoch Times. It allows the “central government itself to do the central planning without having to publicly acknowledge such and deal with the unpleasant repercussions of property confiscation.” And the central planning is to bring America down to the level of a dependent non-wealthy nation.
ESG Origins
ESG concepts were originally developed at the United Nations Environmental Programme Financial Initiative two decades ago as a way to implement it sustainable development goals (SDG) through its principles of “responsible” investing.
What this amounts to is that the United Nations, via ESG, defines what is moral and what is not. The “select group of human beings” — as John Kerry calls the self-anointed socialist elitists that run the UN — decide for you how you will invest your money and your future.
To get the idea, consider what is called “Sin Stocks.” These would be stocks that ESG investors would practice to avoid, such as businesses or industries that are considered “unethical, immoral, unsavory.” Historically, sin stocks included businesses in the “alcohol, gambling, tobacco, and weapons sectors,” according to Vivek Ramaswamy in his book "Woke, Inc."
Sin stocks today, however, defined by government force - think communism, socialism - include any investment in oil or coal production. Gun manufacturers obviously are going to be on the “sin stock” list. Companies will be pressured to cave to socialistic criteria by submitting reports how they have fostered the green agenda; how they have met racial quotas; how they have furthered the war against sexism, etc.
To see how arbitrary this socialistic nonsense is, consider the fact that the Elon Musk’s Tesla corporation, is a “sin stock.” Not because his car is environmentally unfriendly, but because he himself is for freedom; quite opposed to our current government. Elon Musk is on the black list.
Catastrophic Results
In his book, Vivek Ramaswamy states that ESG investing is not pointless to the socialists in charge.
“It’s just that , by design, it is supposed to be relatively less profitable.”
But we feel good about it because we promote the new earth ethic that replaces biblical ethics.
A 2020 study by the Boston College Center for Retirement Research found that ESG investing reduced pensioners’ returns by .70 to .90 percent per year, with much of the difference attributable to higher management fees for ESG funds, according to an article from The Epoch Times.
The article continues that Columbia University and the London School of Economics found that “ESG funds appear to underperform financially, relative to other funds within the same asset manager and year, and charge higher fees.” ESG funds have “worse track records for compliance with labor and environmental laws, relative to portfolio firms held by non-ESG funds managed by the same financial institutions.”
The same was found true in multiple other studies, such as conducted by the University of North Carolina and the University of Iowa, according to the article from The Epoch Times. ESG makes America and Americans poorer, and dependent upon foreign nations. But that is the point. Catastrophe for America.
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