Posted on 03/12/2023 5:54:50 AM PDT by MtnClimber
At the beginning of March of 2023, your Congress, the U.S. House & the U.S. Senate, both passed legislation that makes null and void the Biden administration’s mandate that investment companies, nationwide, consider ESG standards when evaluating investments for their clients. This legislation is heading to the White House where President Biden has vowed to veto it. The veto, if not overridden by both houses of Congress, would allow the ESG mandate imposed by the U.S. Department of Labor to remain in place.
What the heck is ESG? In short, it stands for environmental, social and governance. So, the new Labor Department rule (not a law passed by Congress) tells investment companies that they should look at a company’s ESG behaviors to screen for their potential investments. OK I get it now. This is why we have seen our nation seem to move at lightning speed towards “woke” policies. This is why we now see almost every TV commercial make some social or environmentally friendly statement, notwithstanding the product line. ESGs are important now to the investment world so -- says the federal government. Investment companies use ESGs, which are non-financial factors, in investment decisions. This means they are factoring in social accountability. Companies now need to have a desirable ESG rating in order to be considered investment worthy. Never mind their financial status or product or financial reliability.
If a company wants an investment firm to buy its stock, then it needs to have environmentally friendly policies. So, the company will begin to issue favorable climate change statements from their board of directors. They now need to make statements about safeguarding the environment. Remember, they want their ESG rating to be high!
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Look how much the focus on ESG helped Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
Typical government mission creep:
Final Rule on Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ebsa/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/fact-sheets/final-rule-on-prudence-and-loyalty-in-selecting-plan-investments-and-exercising-shareholder-rights
Consider ESG, then, as a fiduciary looking out for the best interest of the investor, do the opposite.
So this is our system now, president makes a law, congress tries to pass a law to make what president wants illegal, president vetos it, thus presidential mandate is now law?
Sadly, that seems accurate.
But that rule - which is not a law, but has the effect of one - can be administratively repealed the instant another administration takes power.
There are many rules that Trump or Bush could have simply voided on day 1. Trump did take out a few but of course Bush just added to them.
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