On January 18, 2024 an organization called Centerline Liberties (Centerline) issued a press release titled “Center-Right Taxpayer Advocacy Leaders Unveil Free-market, Pro-growth Investment Principles Related to ESG.” Despite my rather deep involvement in the “ESG Culture Wars,” I was surprised to see this group of center-right organizations and individuals wade into the debate with a nuanced approach. On first glance, simply seeing the word “center-right” it would be fair to assume that this is just a more intelligent objection to ESG than what is coming out of more conservative corners of the Republican party such as think tanks like the Heartland Institute and the Heritage Foundation, some Republican members of the House of Representatives, and red state governors and legislatures. I have written about the efforts of Congressman Jim Jordan, Governor Ron DeSantis, and red state anti-ESG legislation. (Stay tuned for more on Heartland and Heritage.)

What Centerline is doing is refreshing and sensible. Its press release announces that “nine center-right taxpayer advocacy leaders announced a set of investment principles to Members of Congress meant to drive economic growth, innovation, and progress related to ESG. The principles were unveiled in a January 18, 2024 letter to the Chairman [Patrick McHenry (R-NC)} and Ranking Member [Maxine Waters (D-CA)} of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services to discourage “bans or mandates targeting the investment decisions of individuals, pension funds, or businesses.”

The letter opens: “We, the undersigned organizations, write to Congress concernin”g a noticeable increase in heavy-handed policy and rulemaking focused on environmental and social considerations, sometimes referred to as ‘ESG,’ which has resulted in market distortions and reduced economic freedom. These politically motivated actions, driven by extreme positions in both parties, carry outsized ramifications for taxpayers, families, and businesses in a time of intense change and grave economic uncertainty.“ Here are the individuals who signed this letter. Not a single fellow liberal in the bunch!

Carlos Curbelo, former Member of Congress

John Szoka CEO Conservative Energy Network

While the letter calls on ESG extremism on both sides (largely exclusions and divestments of fossil fuel companies on the left and anything ESG more broadly on the right), my reading is that their target is more the right, which makes sense given it’s where their strongest policy relationships exist. It makes strategic sense as well given the astonishing amount of time and energy being expended in red states to pass anti-ESG legislation in many forms.

The Pleiades (or Seven Sisters), famous star cluster in the boreal Taurus constellation. (Photo by Photo12/UIG/Getty Images) UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP VIA GETTY IMAGES

For those of you who want to keep track of all the crazy fun, Pleiades Strategy provides an online tracking tool of anti-ESG legislation in 28 red states. The “progress” has been remarkable in terms of the growth in activity, but much less so in terms of bills passed as business and investor groups have pushed back, like in Wyoming. In 2021, 28 bills were introduced in 13 red states. In 2024 there are currently 154 bills, 58 being carryovers from 2023 and 96 introduced this year already. Only 42 have been passed in 18 states.

The bills vary in terms of how draconian they are in terms of inhibiting how free markets are working in those states. Seventy of these bills are dead and more are likely to join them in their coffins. There are 11 South Carolina bills that have not moved at all since early 2023. None of them crossed over before the required deadline, but technically the legislature could revive them if they wanted to.” There are also nine bills in Arizona that almost certainly wouldn’t survive if they make it to the Democratic governor’s desk. In short, what a lot of performative wasted time, energy, and taxpayer dollars to either accomplish nothing or to make!things worse for red state citizens, as I will show.

In some cases, the legislation which is passed is accompanied with fiery anti-ESG rhetoric but in substance it’s hardly an ESG Dragon Slayer. A good example of this is Florida House Bill 3, “An act relating to government and corporate activism.” Gov. Ron DeSantis’s lectern at the signing ceremony read “Government Of Laws, Not Woke Politics.” Now, there’s some florid rhetoric to fire up the base to let them know their Guvnor is protecting them from, channeling Mike Pence, pernicious progressives liberals intent on destroying America As It Should Be!

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