America
Red States’ War on Republicans act
to curb damaging climate change agenda pushed by progressives.
R BY DAVID A. PATTEN
ed state governors are fighting back against a ris- ing tide of globalist billion- aires, bureaucrats, and cli-
mate change activists who are push- ing U.S. companies into adopting progressive policy stances — even if it hurts their investment returns, employment, and the economy. In July, Gov. Ron DeSantis moved
to put an end to it in Florida. He signed off on a series of mea-
sures to ensure state funds aren’t hijacked to finance progressives’ cli- mate change agenda. “From Wall Street banks to mas-
sive asset managers to Big Tech com- panies,” DeSantis declared, “we have seen the corporate elite use their economic power to impose policies on the country that they could not achieve at the ballot box.
“The leveraging of corporate
power to impose an ideological agen- da on society,” he added, “represents an alarming trend.” In red state America, the Florida
governor has plenty of company: A growing list of states have passed laws that forbid making investment decisions based on the ESG issues — environmental, social, and (cor- porate) governance — promoted by the left.
Financial Technologies Forum
recently reported that at least 24 states have either passed, or are con- sidering, legislation to protect state investments from ESG influence. Among them: West Virginia, Okla- homa, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas. Top finance officials from Cali-
fornia, Oregon, Washington, and 10 other blue states fired back with a
“ The leveraging of corporate power to impose an ideological agenda on society represents an alarming trend.”
— Gov. Ron DeSantis 14 NEWSMAX | NOVEMBER 2022
joint statement in September charg- ing that red states are “using black- lists to obstruct the free market.” That didn’t deter The Heritage
Foundation from recently jump- ing into the fray. It launched “ESG Hurts,” a national ad campaign to expose the dangers of what Heritage calls “the radical agenda of the ESG movement.” Andy Olivastro, vice president for
outreach at Heritage, tells Newsmax: “There’s a growing number of peo- ple who seek to impose their politi- cal and cultural preferences on the world and on the rest of us. And they found out that they could use our money to pay for it.” While the ESG agenda is primar-
ily aimed at forcing companies to “evolve” on fossil fuels, conserva- tives warn it could be weaponized to advance other issues, such as restricting the right to bear arms. That’s been a concern ever since
Visa, Mastercard, and American Express announced they’d separate- ly track any purchases made at gun stores, no longer lumping them in with “general merchandise.”
WORLD/OSORIOARTIST/SHUTTERTOCK / WOKE/WILDPIXEL©ISTOCK RACISM/THEVISUALSYOUNEED/SHUTTERSTOCK / FLAG/ IT TECH SCIENCE/SHUTTERSTOCK
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