
The anti-ESG movement, which, by most accounts kicked off in 2021 with Texas legislation aimed at protecting the oil and gas industries, is gaining ground. And an in-depth report by Clint Rainey in Fast Company shows that the lawmakers and lobbyists who oppose ESG—shorthand for environmental, social, and governance factors used by executives and investors to measure a company’s impact—are deep-pocketed and sophisticated. To anti-ESG advocates, companies’ focus on societal issues is “not only an assault on the economist Milton Friedman’s doctrine that a corporation’s only obligation is to its shareholders,” Rainey writes. “This is an attempt to redefine and subvert capitalism itself.”
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