By BETHANY BLANKLEY | THE CENTER SQUARE
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is leading a coalition of governors from 18 states who’ve pledged to fight the Biden administration’s environmental, social and corporate governance agenda, also known as ESG.
The governors said Biden’s investment agenda is a “decision to jeopardize retirement savings for millions of Americans to promote far left priorities.”
Joining DeSantis are the governors of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
The coalition argues President Joe Biden’s ESG agenda is “destabilizing the American economy and the global financial system.”
“At my direction, Florida has led the way in combating the pernicious effects of
The rule risks the pensions of thousands of hardworking Americans, they argue, instead of “prioritizing investment decisions on the highest rate of return.”
The rule, “Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights,” follows an executive order Biden issued last May. In it, he directed the federal government to implement policies “to help safeguard the financial security of America’s families, businesses and workers from climate-related financial risk that may threaten the life savings and pensions of U.S. workers and families.”
The rule change “will bolster the resilience of workers’ retirement savings and pensions by removing the artificial impediments – and chilling effect on environmental, social and governance investments – caused by the prior administration’s rules,” Acting Assistant Secretary for the Employee Benefits Security Administration Ali Khawar said in a statement last fall. “A principal idea underlying the proposal is that climate change and other ESG factors can be financially material and when they are, considering them will inevitably lead to better long-term risk-adjusted returns, protecting the retirement savings of America’s workers.”
The governors argue that retirees are “already suffering from the reckless fiscal policies of the Biden Administration” and are likely to “continue to experience diminished returns on the investment of their hard-earned money while the corporate elite continue to use their economic power to impose policies on the country that they could not achieve at the ballot box.”
The coalition pledged to fight against the administration’s ESG policies after 25 state attorneys general sued the administration over them in January. Many in the governors’ coalition overlap with states represented in the AG coalition.
Last August, DeSantis vowed to “spearhead an initiative to join with other like-minded states to send an even louder message to the financial industry that the American people have rejected ESG at the ballot box, and ideologues cannot and should not circumnavigate the will of the people.” The governor’s coalition, he said, “delivered on that promise.”
In a joint statement issued on Thursday, the governors said, “Congress exercised its powers under the Congressional Review Act” to disapprove a Department of Labor Rule, which the president has threatened to veto. In doing so, Biden has “put his political agenda above the well-being and individual freedoms of hardworking Americans.”
The coalition of governors said “… freedom loving states can work together and leverage our state pension funds to force change in how major asset managers invest the money of hardworking Americans, ensuring corporations are focused on maximizing shareholder value, rather than the proliferation of woke ideology.”
The letter closed with, “As Governors, we are committed to protecting the interests of our constituents and will keep fighting the Administration’s decision to jeopardize retirement savings for millions of Americans to promote far left priorities.”
Per the Constitution, the Congress should be doing this. While I applaud the Governors for doing so, the Congress which is closet to the people have the power to stop the President in this agenda.
This is why I voted for Dunleavy. Saving America versus throwing it away. Bill Walker would have supported Biden’s reckless and suicidal policies. Alaska is proud to have Dunleavy.
I’m kind of there with you if he had decided to do it on his own instead of stepping for their back in line and joining the United States of Florida.
Come’on Paul , we aren’t necessary “PROUD ” of Dunleavy, just tolerating him as the lesser of the evils in this WONK movement to the left across our normally conservative right minded State. We may not of had Dunleavey twice as Governor if we had a real Party Primary! Thanks to his lame Lt. Governor RCV became a reality! I am not a Cert. Plumber but as a General Contractor I know drainage!
I don’t know that we are all proud to have Dunleavy. Most folks I talk to voted for him as the perceived lesser of the available evils.
Then why is Dunleavy whoring for the Carbon Sequestration plans?
Thank you, Governor Dunleavy!
Dunleavy is great at promoting “coalitions” of all forms
As always. If someone leads, Dunleavy follows.
Took him awhile to be a cling on. He needs to step up and fight for Alaska like he was elected to do. If we told the feds to get out I wonder how many people would move here for freedom.
Good.
Everything woke goes broke .. take SVB for example ..it’s true commies your world views are not popular in America , that’s why it’s so apparent that there’s no way on gods green earth that Biden won the 2020 election the only reason the courts didn’t throw it out in my opinion the judges didn’t want to the decide the election outcome probably because of pressure from the communists.
Why is it that if you don’t support a war with Russia you either a Putin stooge or not a patriotic American ? What’s sense does it make to go to war when your military can’t meet recruitment goals , you send all your weapons to Ukraine, the countries financial system is on the verge of collapse , any sane president or politicians would maybe pull back from colonialism and try and protect their own country , but we don’t have sane politicians in this country only ones that are getting Chinese money or they don’t care about the voters ( who they actually work for.)
Rasmussen Polling has Trump polling at %53 favorably among ALL VOTERS … read that again 53% AMONG ALL VOTERS even democrats think favorably about Trump you know why ? Because the democrats realize that Biden isn’t the moderate he claimed to be during the election, his policies have destroyed this country. So if you like sky high inflation and laughable foreign policy then you keep voting for these corrupt uniparty politicians and see how fast America turns into a socialist state .
Scott – do you have a citation/reference for the 53% approval number from Rasmussen? I looked and didn’t find anything particularly current, nor that number in particular.
thanks
While I agree with most of your post, virtually NONE of the politicians at any level in the USA work for the citizens. Of course there are some exceptions but very few. Republicans and Democrats are but two different sides of the same coin, designed to create the illusion of choice.
This needs analysis. The reaction to Dunleavy’s carbon sequestration plans needed a mitigation of criticism coming from the Right. Ergo, by joining the anti-ESG coalition, he shores up his right flank for himself and his “conservative” supporters in the legislature, even while he moves to the Left. Or, he is too doltish to realize that he cannot limit the beachhead that his plan is creating. It fits all of his supposedly courageous actions as Gov: 1. He tried to punish the judiciary’s abortion dictatorship by removing a token amount of their administrative budget that equaled their unconstitutional mandate for abortion funding, then caved in to their absurd lawsuit. 2. He mitigated the effects of lockdowns by keeping them under local control, even while he fully endorsed Anne Zink’s policies. 3. He speaks out against federal control of our resources even while he allows it to continue. 4. He wants an authentic economy but will accept the bogus “wealth” coming from the federal gov’t if the sequestration plan passes.
Very wise narrative Mr. Bird.
Even on his own official Twitter after the State of the State he bragged about ESG policies and how Alaska has been doing ESG for a long time. This oxymoronic policy stance about saving retirement investments while obliterating natural resource development only hurts Alaska. Ms. Rubenstein on the PFD board is already advocating ESG policies not to mention McKinley Capital working directly with Dr. Parag Khanna, CEO of Climate Alpha. He himself has said he wants to rid the constitutional republic of the US and institute a technocracy! What will happen when Gov. DeSantis takes stock of those joiners and their true commitment to Liberty? Will the Governor be among those that understand the signs of the times? Will he then be compelled to act or will it be too late? When will the administration realize that this is a zero sum outcome? ESG in all forms must be rejected on the premise that it does nothing for human liberty and state sovereignty.
Well ,well ESG is not good for individual financial investments but the Carbon Credit Offsets Scram is AOK for Alaska. What, neither are connected… I call BS on that! I feel like I got pinched for not wearing GREEN today but that’s not the case! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
What about the Permanent Fund’s investments through Blackrock – a leader of the ESG movement?
That is a very good point, MBitsko, and is indeed the woke elephant in the room in regards to the Permanent Fund.
I think many of us, MUST come realize that Biden, due to his dementia is not making these decisions.. OTHERS who have NOT BEEN ELECTED have the control of making many of his decisions and he is being controlled by so- called leftists, communists and all sorts of people who SHOULD NOT and NEVER BEEN elected by the PEOPLE (us). Other left organizations have taken the control, G. Soros, and others which need to be ousted.
Governor Dunleavy made ESG a focal point issue of his State of the State address. The bill he is sponsoring to promote carbon offsets is precisely in support of ESG regulations. The governing banking industries which award carbon offsets use ESG as their regulatory tool to determine credit rating and costs. By his own actions, the governor is promoting ESG in Alaska. He needs to come clean with Alaskans and abandon the liberal left climate crisis fantasy. NEWSFLASH… Carbon is a nutrient, not a pollutant.
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