READ ALL ABOUT IT 5/4/2023
– Environment, Social and Governance. How does it affect us? ESG scores are routinely being used by investment and accounting firms, banks and credit rating agencies to grade companies on how well they have policies or values that reduce the effects of climate change, increase diversity on their governing boards and support social justice causes.
Last year’s Senate bill did not make it out of the Banking and Insurance Committee. If it had, banks and credit unions would have been required to disclose that they use ESG to deny credit or charge different interest rates for similar transactions. The fear of being denied credit because of a poor ESG score is more than hypothetical. In 2018, Bank of America announced that it would stop lending money to gun manufacturers that made “military-style” firearms for civilian use.
H-3565 – Introduced by Rep. Doug Gilliam (Union) is aimed at prohibiting the investment of state retirement funds based on ESG factors. Gilliam is also the main sponsor another bill that would ban government from awarding a contract of $50,000 or more to a company that uses ESG standards or engages in “economic boycotts” against companies that are legally involved in “fossil fuel-based” or firearms related industries.
S-559 – Prevents banks and credit unions from using social credit scores when deciding whether to offer loans. Banned social credit factors would include a person’s political views, religious beliefs and whether they own a firearm.
These two bills are still in committee. We need to contact our Representatives and Senators to get these bills to the Governor.
Please come to Friendly’s on May 9th to hear Diane Hardy expound on this most important subject.
Businesses that have good ESG scores perform the worst. They use ESG as a woke cover. Their stocks are a bad investment. Now pension funds are being pushed into ESG. From Bloomberg Dec 2022: Funds linked to environmental, social and governance principles are by definition supposed to minimize risks tied to those three factors. In 2022, the approach did little to help protect investors from the brutal slide in the financial markets. The 10 largest ESG funds by assets have all posted double-digit losses, with eight of them falling even more than the S&P 500’s 14.8% decline.
This comment was pened by Louise C. – Palm Lakes Plantation on NextDoor in the SC Republicans Group.
H. 3690, a bill to protect South Carolinian retirees’ investments by closing key avenues to advancing ESG, passed the House in early April and is poised for action in the Senate. It is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Finance Retirement Systems Standing Subcommittee on Tuesday, but will also need to be passed by the full Finance Committee before it can come to the Senate floor. Members of the committee need to hear from you!
The Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) agenda is a political tool used by the Left to advance their ideology in business and financial institutions. ESG policies are a thinly veiled attempt to radically transform corporations into social justice warriors.
From requiring public companies to appoint board members based on race and sex, to starving the energy sector of capital, ESG is reshaping the economy to carry water for political ideologies that could not be implemented through the democratic process. It is weakening America by moving our society into dangerous dependence on foreign oil, creating social credit scores, and demanding investment decisions based on pro-abortion policies.
>>>Take Action: Email members of the Senate Finance Committee and urge them to hold a hearing on H. 3690 to protect South Carolinians from woke finance.
H. 3690 would protect South Carolinian retirees’ investments by closing key avenues to advancing ESG. It requires the South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission (RSIC) and asset managers working with it to make investments solely in the financial interests of participants and their beneficiaries, ensuring state employees’ pension funds are not invested to advance a political agenda.
The House passed the bill in early April, but it needs a Senate committee hearing and floor vote in order to be sent to the governor’s desk.
South Carolina should join the ranks of states working to ensure their state’s investments are not used to advance ESG.
>>> Email Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey and members of the Senate Finance Committee here and urge them to take action on H. 3690 next week.
Great news! H. 3690, the ESG bill we highlighted in the email above, passed through the Senate Finance Committee, and now awaits two important votes by the full Senate. If the Senate passes the bill before May 11th, it will be sent to Governor McMaster for his signature, inserting South Carolina into the ranks of states standing up against ESG policies.
>>>Take Action: Email our state senators and urge them to vote YES on H. 3690 to protect South Carolinians from woke finance.
Let’s get this across the finish line!
Thank you for your efforts!
James Quarles
South Carolina State Director
Heritage Action for America
Diane Hardy was a very informative guest speaker tonight, we need more people like her! My Take away was “Environment, Social and Governance is a massive BLACKMAIL scheme to force the social scoring weapon on Banks and to tech to accept their left agenda”!
What’s more important for a company: to make a profit, or to do “social good?” More and more companies seem to be focusing on the latter. But is that a good business strategy? And, what does that mean for the economy, for you… and your bank account? Take a look at this: https://www.prageru.com/video/esg-woke-to-broke