DeSantis Proposes New Legislation That Will Make It Illegal For Banks to Use ESG Investment Choices

Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, has proposed new legislation that would make it illegal for banks to use environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles in making investment choices. According to a news conference DeSantis gave on February 13 at Florida SouthWestern State College in Naples, Florida, ESG-driven investment could be detrimental to the financial health of Florida’s public employee pensions. DeSantis promised that the state would enforce accountability inside the banking sector.

It has been known for ages that they must uphold the fiduciary duty. According to DeSantis, “that’s what their job is.” He added that banks and other financial organizations “for their religious, political, or social” convictions would be prohibited from discriminating against Floridians under the proposed law. DeSantis stated that Nondiscrimination is a core value.

DeSantis said the state would prohibit financial institutions from using social credit scoring in banking and lending decisions. According to DeSantis, they are keeping it a place for business judgment, not political agitation.

He also stated that the state would not deposit its almost $20 billion surplus to corporations that violate these regulations by promoting a “woke ESG agenda.”  Additionally, state investments will be withdrawn from organizations that practice questionable financial management if the bill is signed into law.

Financial institutions participating in corporate activism will be denied the status of “Qualified Public Depositories.” DeSantis insisted that the legislation would make it illegal for state and municipal governments to consider ESG when making an investment, procurement, contracting, or issuing bonds. In the future, consumers of banks and other financial institutions will not be targeted for their political, religious, or social views.

DeSantis feels they have done more than any state in the country.

He elaborated, saying, “This is an elite-driven phenomenon,” it’s not a path that will be good for this country. It’s not going to be good for other industrialized countries, either. DeSantis stated that this ESG wokeness is being forced on everyone. They know they don’t have the votes to pass this through the democratic process, so they’re expecting to impose it from on high and force the rest of the public to accept it quietly. In Florida, that’s not going to happen.

Oil and gas, firearms, and border security were all examples of firms or industries that DeSantis said banks and other financial institutions tried to exclude from their investment portfolios by using ESG decision-making.

He said that progressives’ goal of abolishing ICE in favor of free borders led to the debunking of a private correctional corporation that had supplied ICE with prisoner labor.

Kathleen Passidomo, State Senate Majority,  remarked that the “governor is doing things that we all wish we could do.” As she put it, those who are quieter can’t do the things you have the bravery to stand up and do.

Speaker of the House Paul Renner blasted environmental, social, and governance (ESG) decision-making for its supposed bias against fossil fuels and its tendency to discourage investment in oil and gas extraction.

“We haven’t built a refinery since the ’70s,” Renner remarked. And then Joe Biden goes to Venezuela pleading with the government for petroleum, adding insult to injury: “It’s insane.”

Money managers motivated by ESG criteria, such as Black Rock, invest it in one limited ideological direction, he claimed, taking people’s money without giving it a chance to grow. They don’t have your back or represent your thoughts. According to the governor, it’s being hatched out of the U.N. and out of Davos “on their values, not ours.”

According to a statement released by the governor’s office, ESG is a direct danger to the American economy and individual economic freedom. Florida will not allow discrimination based on a person’s ideological beliefs; thus, corporations cannot use it as an excuse.

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