West Virginia: The ESG Dragon Slayer and State That Roared
Jim Willis on NGL Pipelines
Editor & Publisher, Marcellus Drilling News (MDN)
[Editor’s Note: West Virginia is going at BlackRock and other corporatist big banks who have allied with the ESG movement to control all. West Virginians are dragon slayers!]
We love West Virginia. The state continues to fight the good fight against those who insist on trying to defund fossil energy companies. West Virginia’s latest target is the two proxy advisory services, Glass Lewis and International Shareholder Services (ISS), that control some 90% of all corporate proxy voting in the U.S. West Virginia is advancing a new bill, at the prompting of State Treasurer Riley Moore, that the state (including its massive pension fund) will not do business with proxy services that use ESG (environment, social, governance) as a litmus test for how to invest. States like West Virginia (and Florida, and Texas) are changing the game–having an impact.
We have excerpts from two articles to share. The first is from our favorite national newspaper, The Epoch Times:
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.”
“No ESG considerations can be taken into account,” he added.
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.
A copy of the letter sent by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey (and 20 other state AGs) to ISS and Glass Lewis, taking them to task over ESG policies may be found here. Also, here is a copy of West Virginia House Bill 2862.
From the Washington Examiner:
West Virginia’s state treasurer has introduced legislation that seeks to further combat corporate environmental and social goals, a move that is part of a broader pushback from Republican-led states.
GOP Treasurer Riley Moore has been one of the country’s most vocal critics of what is known as the environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, movement. He told the Washington Examiner that the legislation is going to require the state’s investment boards to cast proxy votes based on the financial interests of pensioners and taxpayers, not ESG factors. Proxy voting is a process that allows shareholders to vote on key issues while not personally attending corporations’ annual shareholder meetings. Republicans like Moore have accused large asset managers, who vote proxies on behalf of their clients, of using the power to leverage ESG goals.
“Say we have a proxy adviser or a fiduciary manager of these funds, say there is something that comes up that is a nonpecuniary interest — any vote like that, like a [diversity, equity, and inclusion] vote … they’re going to have to come to the board for instruction on how to cast that vote,” said Moore…
“West Virginia needs to take back control of its shareholder voting rights to ensure our public funds are not being used to advance social and political agendas that go against the financial interests of our pensioners and taxpayers,” Moore said in announcing the move.
The news comes a year after Moore, who is also running for Congress, announced that his state would end the use of a BlackRock investment fund. He said BlackRock has pushed companies to embrace investment strategies that hurt the fossil fuel industry while increasing investment in Chinese companies that go against U.S. interests and damage his state’s manufacturing base.
Over the summer, his office also declared five financial institutions ineligible for state banking contracts on the grounds that they “boycott” fossil fuel companies.
The restricted financial institutions are BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo — many of the biggest financial firms in the world. As the blacklist took effect, all five firms are no longer eligible for state contracts, and any existing contracts were voided. The news meant the firms will lose access to $18 billion in annual inflows and outflows.
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