(RepublicanNews.org) – Alabama is the latest state to put an end to the creeping control that “ESG” legislation is exerting on American business and politics. Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed Senate Bill 261 into law on June 6th.
The bill will make it harder for businesses in Alabama to buckle under so-called “environmental, social, and governance” mandates that have trickled down into American business since the hard-left principles were codified at a 2017 meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
ESG policies usually require companies to commit to goals such as “going carbon neutral,” and to having quotas of women, racial minorities, and others employed at all levels of a business. Corporations that don’t sign on, or who do business with other companies that will not commit to ESG goals, are penalized.
Alabama’s bill prevents most businesses in the state from doing business with the state (such as by contracting to provide the state services) if the companies boycott other businesses. Heavily ESG-compliant companies frequently refuse to do business with other companies that run afoul of whatever the current ESG priority might be.
Ivey said she wants none of this in Alabama business. She said citizens of the state want nothing to do with ESG, and they don’t want it influencing business activity in the state.
ESG is not politically or socially neutral. Its goals reflect far-left social and political priorities, such as extreme responses to alleged climate crises, fealty to the idea that “systemic racism” is holding down blacks in the West, and other progressive notions.
ESG has spread throughout the corporate sector since “The Compact for Responsive and Responsible Leadership” was agreed to by the WEF at its 2017 meeting.
Other conservative states have pushed against ESG too, including Florida, Texas, and Utah, all of which have anti-ESG legislation. Though it only passed the House, a federal bill from Rep. Anthony Barr (R-KY) pushing back on ESG shows there is Congressional interest in the issue.
Copyright 2023, RepublicanNews.org
