On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced legislative proposals and executive actions intended to shield Florida residents from corporations pushing so-called woke agendas as well as companies pushing an environment, social, and corporate governance (ESG) agenda on consumers.
A rising conservative star, DeSantis intends to block such corporations from making changes to society by instituting corporate rules affecting the way that Floridians live their lives — rules that could never be passed by a legislature.
“The leveraging of corporate power to impose an ideological agenda on society represents an alarming trend,” DeSantis said. “From Wall Street banks to massive asset managers and big tech companies, 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. Through the actions I announced today, we are protecting Floridians from woke capital and asserting the authority of our constitutional system over ideological corporate power.”
ESG regulations are largely the cause of serious unrest in Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, where those governments agreed to certain environmental measures that lead to decreased food production and inflation. Both Sri Lanka and the Netherlands have what are considered excellent ESG scores by entities that measure such things.
ESG scores are used by many large financial institutions to gauge how well entities such as nation-states adhere to certain metrics based upon political affiliation, religious beliefs, certain industry engagement, and other ESG benchmarks.
“We’re putting the people of Florida first, and we’re going to do what’s in their best interest, not whatever the delusions of some wealthy woke CEO wants to do,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis also blasted corporations — such as Disney — that are using their corporate platforms to push woke ideology such as transgenderism in the Sunshine State.
Disney was especially vocal in challenging DeSantis on the state’s Parental Rights in Education Bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by LGBTQ extremists.
The speaker-designate for Florida’s House of Representatives announced that the House was ready to ally with the governor in his mission against ESG and “woke” governance.
“Woke elites use ESG investing to prop up far-left policies, undermining our national security and raising prices for Americans,” Representative Paul Renner (R) said. “The Florida House will join the fight to stop woke financial titans who seek to dictate policy to Floridians regardless of our choices at the ballot box. I look forward to working with Governor DeSantis to protect Floridians’ pocketbooks and strengthen our national security.”
Among DeSantis’ proposals for the 2023 legislative session will be to prohibit big banks, credit card companies, and money transmitters from discriminating against customers for their religious, political, or social beliefs; prohibit State Board of Administration (SBA) fund managers from considering ESG factors when investing the state’s money; and require SBA fund managers to only consider maximizing the return on investment on behalf of Florida’s retirees.
These proposals are aimed at amending Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices statute, and are meant to forbid discriminatory practices of large banks based on ESG scores.
Also, at the state’s next Board of Administration meeting, DeSantis is expected to propose an update to the fiduciary duties of the State Board of Administration investment fund managers and investment advisors, which will clearly define the factors they are allowed to consider in investment decisions. None of those factors will be ESG scores.
DeSantis spoke in front of a large banner that read “Government of Laws, Not Woke CEOs.” The governor spoke about the obvious hypocrisy of CEOs and other wealthy climate activists who want to “change the world” at the expense of other people’s rights.
“For every master of the universe who’s prattling on about, you know, no emissions and all this stuff, I don’t see very many of them giving up their private jets,” DeSantis remarked.
The governor’s office signaled that DeSantis is ready and willing to work with other states on these anti-ESG and anti-“woke” measures.
“Governor DeSantis will work with like-minded states to leverage the investment power of state pension funds through shareholder advocacy to ensure corporations are focused on maximizing shareholder value, rather than the proliferation of woke ideology,” said a statement from the governor’s office.
