When Jennifer Barker worked as an insurance broker, she had a hard time finding insurance companies without ties to environmental social governance (ESG).
“I have clients that don't want to invest with companies that are subscribing to it,” she said. “I don't believe that environmental social governance should have anything to do with the way that Missourians invest money.”
Barker was reacting to the news that Missouri is joining 17 other states in a coalition chaired by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis against ESG retirement investing.
“I don't think that financial institutions should be concerned with that at all,” she said. “I think it's political. I don't think it has anything to do with the financial industry.”
As reported by the Louisiana Record, ESG is an anti-fossil fuel investment strategy, which obstructs the fossil fuel industry in oil-rich states.
Other states that have joined DeSantis’ alliance are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
“We as freedom-loving states can work together and leverage our state pension funds to force change in how major asset managers invest the money of hardworking Americans, ensuring corporations are focused on maximizing shareholder value, rather than the proliferation of woke ideology,” states the Joint Governor’s Policy Statement.
The coalition was formed after President Biden vowed to veto a measure by Congress that disapproved of the Department of Labor Rule, ‘Prudence and Loyalty in Selecting Plan Investments and Exercising Shareholder Rights.’
"Florida has led the way in combatting the pernicious effects of the ESG regime by directing our state pension fund managers to reject ESG and instead focus on obtaining the highest return on investment for Florida’s taxpayers and retirees,” said DeSantis in a statement online. “At the time I said we would spearhead an initiative to join with other like-minded states to send an even louder message to the financial industry that the American people have rejected ESG at the ballot box, and ideologues cannot and should not circumnavigate the will of the people.
Although lawmakers in Missouri have yet to introduce legislation, DeSantis announced legislation that bans using ESG in all investment decisions at the state and local level so that fund managers instead only consider financial factors that maximize the highest rate of return.
“I would hope that whatever we could do, we would but our session ends in four weeks so any legislation that is brought on now would never make it through the whole process,” Barker added. “Hopefully at the next legislative session, there could be something ESG-related in Missouri.”