SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce discusses the idea of investing “waking up” and how BlackRock is pushing back on the GOP in Fox Business Tonight.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been praised for siphoning $2 billion in assets from BlackRock, one of the world’s largest investment firms. One commenter called environmental, social and governance investing, aka ESG, “an illegal leftist scam”.
Florida joined a growing list of states opposing the rise of ESG investing, particularly from companies like BlackRock, which control trillions of dollars in assets.
“Using Florida’s cash to fund BlackRock’s social engineering project is not something we signed up for,” Florida chief financial officer Jimmy Patronis tweeted Thursday.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses a news conference at Eau Gallie High School’s aircraft hangar March 22 in Melbourne, Florida. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Steve Milloy, who served on President Trump’s transition team, called it a “bad day” at BlackRock. “ESG is an illegal leftist scam to circumvent democratic processes to impose arbitrary standards on corporations to abuse for political ends,” he tweeted.
Former Republican congressional candidate Dr. Willie Montague celebrated the news on Twitter. “It’s a great day when Florida’s Chief Financial Officer says they are withdrawing $2 billion worth of assets under management from BlackRock. ESG policies must die in a ditch.”
Florida isn’t the only state that has divested its investments from BlackRock. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted that “Texas was the first state to ban BlackRock from doing business with the state.” “I signed legislation in 2021 to ban financial companies that have ESG policies that discriminate against the oil and gas sector. This includes BlackRock and several other financial companies.”
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Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis explained the reasons behind his decision to divest billions of dollars from BlackRock in an interview with Fox News on Friday. “I’ve lost confidence” in BlackRock, Patronis said, adding that the company “shouldn’t be using Florida taxpayers’ money” to influence policy.
ESG has come under fire from other executives such as Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has repeatedly and publicly spoken out on the issue.
“ESG is the devil,” Musk tweeted last week, after economic commentator Carol Roth reminded Twitter users that Tesla was removed from the S&P 500’s ESG index, while oil and gas giant Exxon stayed.
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“Remember when @ElonMusk wanted to bring free speech to Twitter and then removed S&P Tesla from its ESG 500 index but kept it in Exxon? ESG is Business Social Credit. It’s a tool to control capital, keep business people informed, and ultimately control you,” Roth tweeted.
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BlackRock said in a statement it was “surprised” by Florida’s move.
“As trustees, we have everything with the sole aim of increasing returns for our clients,” said the investment giant. “We are surprised by the Florida Chief Financial Officer’s decision given the strong returns BlackRock has delivered to Florida taxpayers over the past five years.”
“Neither the CFO nor his employees have raised any performance concerns,” added BlackRock. “We are concerned by the emerging trend of policy initiatives like this one that sacrifice access to quality investments, thereby jeopardizing returns that will ultimately harm Florida citizens. Trustees should always prioritize performance over politics.”