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State financial officers urge financial institutions to abandon ESG
Center Square ^ | 7/90/2025 | Tom Joyce

Posted on 07/30/2025 2:42:54 PM PDT by george76

Arizona, Louisiana, Pennsylvania treasurers among those to sign..

A group of 26 financial officers from 21 states sent letters to 18 major financial institutions this week, warning them to abandon environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices if they wish to continue doing business with their states.

The letters said ESG has undermined the traditional fiduciary duty that firms owe their clients, focusing solely on financial return, and instead prioritizes advancing political agendas.

“Fiduciary duty has long been a critical safeguard that facilitated efficient capital allocation grounded in financial merit rather than political ideology,” the letter said. “But that clarity is being diluted under the banner of so-called ‘long-term risk mitigation,’ where speculative assumptions about the future, like climate change catastrophe, are used to justify ideological conclusions today.”

Signers include state treasurers, auditors, and comptrollers from states like Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Utah. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and 17 other financial leaders were recipients of the joint letter. Others include executives from Vanguard, Fidelity, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and State Street.

The letter said that while some firms have started leaving global climate coalitions and reducing ESG-related proxy votes, the state financial officers want “durable assurances” that fiduciary duty, not politics, drives investment decisions.

“While some firms have recently taken encouraging steps, such as withdrawing from global climate coalitions and scaling back ESG rhetoric and proxy votes, and some states have permitted incremental reintegration, more work must be done,” the letter said. “The number one issue is a recommitment to the foundational principles of fiduciary duty, loyalty, objectivity, and financial focus.”

The move comes after Texas removed BlackRock from its blacklist earlier this month and resumed investing with the firm – a move that drew criticism from others still pushing back against ESG. The letter indicates that many states won't follow suit.

“Financial institutions wishing to compete for our states’ business should provide durable assurances that their practices align with these principles,” the letter said. “Our responsibility is to ensure public assets are managed in the best financial interest of beneficiaries and taxpayers.”

O.J. Oleka, president of the State Financial Officers Foundation, said the states are right to demand proof that ESG is no longer a factor in investing for these companies.

“Actions always speak louder than words. Requiring America's financial giants to prove their independence from woke ideology with concrete steps before doing business with a state's dollars is fully necessary and just makes sense,” Oleka said. “These financial officers are doing the right thing for their states and the taxpayers whose financial security they've been entrusted to protect.”

Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, also praised the letter.

“BlackRock is playing a game of deceit,” Hild said. “Fink and his team are trying to say all the right things to conservatives while quietly doubling down on their activist agenda behind the scenes.”


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: affirmativeaction; blackrock; climatechange; coal; dei; die; diversity; energy; esg; evs; fidelity; goldmansachs; jpmorgan; statestreet; vanguard; woke

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1 posted on 07/30/2025 2:42:54 PM PDT by george76
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To: george76

who wrote the rules for esg?

how did it even become a thing?


2 posted on 07/30/2025 2:49:25 PM PDT by joshua c
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To: george76

Pennsylvania treasurers>>> She is a good one. Might run against the Josh for Gov.


3 posted on 07/30/2025 2:51:29 PM PDT by kvanbrunt2
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To: george76

If only we all had the info that Nancy is investing in and copy her. Her portfolio was somewhere in the 56% ROI which beat every hedge fund on Wall Street.


4 posted on 07/30/2025 2:58:50 PM PDT by shotgun
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To: shotgun
If only we all had the info that Nancy is investing in and copy her. Her portfolio was somewhere in the 56% ROI which beat every hedge fund on Wall Street.

Probably using the same method as Hillary and the cattle futures.

Pelousy's overall wealth growth expectations have probably taken a pretty good hit since the Southern Border is no longer an open, 12 lane freeway. It was very lucrative while it lasted.

5 posted on 07/30/2025 3:06:10 PM PDT by Ronaldus Magnus III (Do, or do not, there is no try - AND - Every Time You Fall Down, Get The Frak Up! )
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To: joshua c

Good questions. United Nations Global Compact. In other words CONTROL, CONTROL, CONTROL by globalists for world domination. UNaccountable bureaucrats are EVIL .


6 posted on 07/30/2025 3:21:08 PM PDT by PGalt (Past Peak Civilization?)
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To: joshua c

Eric Holder wrote the rules along with DEI.
He head up the operation in a San Francisco law firm for probably 10 years.


7 posted on 07/30/2025 3:51:41 PM PDT by Zathras
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To: joshua c
who wrote the rules for esg? how did it even become a thing?

I believe it was promoted by Dim leaning states and their treasurers that manage state pensions. Basically, ESG was a score for how much a firm wanted Dim run pensions to invest in those businesses. Pension money managers = big investors. Imagine a CEO trying to impress not just a Warren Buffet running one Berkshire Hathaway, but a room full of Buffets each running a different large investment "firm" (pension plan).

That's how the ESG score was created and how it basically wound up being nothing but a score of how much a firm likes to kiss Dims' butts. Even Tesla's ESG sore dropped as soon as Musk started supporting Trump. Though absolutely nothing changed about Tesla's involvement in the E of ESG (environment). Tesla is still making EV's and cashing in on carbon credits and such that by Dim logic makes them more environmentally "green" than any other company. But various investment firms like Blackrock downgraded Tesla's ESG "score" and Dim run states moved their large pension investment plans out of Tesla stock -- all because Musk joined Trump's team.

That's how phony the ESG bull crap is.

8 posted on 07/30/2025 4:00:27 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: joshua c

It’s no different than the other crap we were told, which we knew was BS but had to accept, temporarily. Based on as much logic and sense as the little circles six feet apart.


9 posted on 07/30/2025 4:39:45 PM PDT by bigbob (Yes. We ARE going back)
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To: PGalt
UNaccountable bureaucrats are EVIL .

,,, the UN trying to run businesses by remote control is just so over the top when we can see how the UN can't run itself. I bet there's no internal auditor in the UN for a start. Those signing against the ESG fantasy should get support from everyone who actually knows how to do business.

10 posted on 07/30/2025 6:10:44 PM PDT by shaggy eel (A long way south of the border.)
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