We have are seeing success in fighting ESG!

Over the last few years I have worked with many of my conservative state financial officer colleagues across the country to shine the light on misguided E.S.G. investing initiatives and what DC politicians are trying to do with your retirement savings. Climate Change policies should be debated in the halls of the legislature, not by activist shareholders jumping from DC to Wall Street. These groups are trying to de-bank our agriculture and energy companies and make it harder for North Dakotans to compete. I’m proud to stand and push back against these efforts.

Good news! We are starting to see some victories, but we must continue the fight!

in December, Vanguard Group dropped out of the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, citing a need to respect their clients desires for clarity and independence in their financial decisionmaking.

In January, BlackRock, the largest fund manager on the planet, announced that they were laying off about 600 employees and pulling back from a number of their ESG funds. This signals that one of the biggest players in the nation is finally seeing that ESG investing is not paying real dividends and doesn’t make sense.

In addition, in February it was announced that JP Morgan and State Street were withdrawing from the global Climate Action 100+ coalition because they recognized that these organizations were operating in a way that wasn’t consistent with their independent approaches to proxy voting and portfolio company engagement.

These victories are all small steps in the war on misguided E.S.G. investment politics. In 2021 we were proud to help make North Dakota the first state to formally prohibit E.S.G. investing by state investment groups. We’ve been proud to join with our fellow states who have taken similar steps since then, and we are happy to see that our efforts are gaining steam.

I look forward to continuing this fight, and keeping up the good progress for North Dakota.

Thomas Beadle