Florida governor attacks ‘euphemistic’ ESG

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has passed a resolution eliminating ESG considerations from pension funds in the state.

Along with trustees of the State Board of Administration (SBA), the resolution directs fund managers to prioritise the “highest return on investment” without considering the “ideological agenda” of ESG.

This will be implemented via fund managers’ fiduciary duties.

The change specifies that fund managers must make investment decisions based only on “pecuniary factors”.

DeSantis, a Republican, commented that the resolution had been passed to avoid the “perversion” of “euphemistic banners” when describing ESG.

“With the resolution, we passed today, the tax dollars and proxy votes of the people of Florida will no longer be commandeered by Wall Street financial firms and used to implement policies through the boardroom that Floridians reject at the ballot box,” said DeSantis.

“We are reasserting the authority of republican governance over corporate dominance, and we are prioritising the financial security of the people of Florida over whimsical notions of a utopian tomorrow.”

The Republican Party’s anti-ESG movement

This is the latest development in anti-ESG legislative activity from the Republican Party.

DeSantis himself has long been an opponent of ESG.

In December 2021, he oversaw changes to the SBA’s proxy voting authority with the aim of reducing the influence of large investment managers such as BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard.

At the same time, guidance was introduced for SBA employees to ensure investment decisions were made without ESG consideration.

Florida is not the only ‘red state’ to adopt an anti-ESG stance in recent months.

In June 2022, an open letter to the SEC was penned by the State Financial Officers Federation (SFOF) which highlighted treasurers’ concerns over ESG regulation being federally imposed.

Eight points were raised in the letter, with the SFOF arguing the SEC is not a climate regulator and that proposed ESG disclosure rules violate the First Amendment.

It was signed by state treasurers representing Idaho, Georgia, Kentucky, Arizona, Alaska, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Carolina, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania.

Climate change and the Biden administration

President Joe Biden has made combatting climate change one of the key tenets of his administration’s political agenda.

This has taken the form of his Inflation Reduction Act which includes $369bn in climate and clean energy programmes.

The law was recently signed into power by Biden.

This is a far cry from the years of President Donald Trump who had adopted a decidedly anti-ESG stance. Activities included Trump appointees at the SEC and Department of Labor issuing rules that would curtail ESG-related investment activity.

One of the most divisive rules tabled during the Trump Administration was a policy change to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act that would have seen pension funds inhibited from prioritising ESG metrics over purely financial ones.

The rule was dropped after a widespread backlash from across the investment industry.

Biden has since been overturning many of Trump’s anti-ESG rules and appointed new personnel to the SEC.