2024 Anti-ESG Executive Actions in the States Report

State executives from across the country have led the charge against corporate responsibility by promulgating at least 113 executive actions in 31 states, all under the banner of what has come to be known as the “anti-ESG” movement. While the movement claims to target Environmental, Social, and Governance investing criteria, “anti-ESG” is ultimately an attempt to slow the energy transition, attack corporate progress on issues of racial justice and workplace diversity, and roll back corporate commitments to labor protections.

In the following report, Pleiades Strategy builds on its comprehensive tracking and analysis of “anti-ESG” state legislation with an in-depth accounting of the coordinated executive actions that right-wing politicians have carried forward to ban or restrict corporate responsibility. As business leaders and investors have shown time and again, environmental, social, and governance factors are critical to risk analysis and real-world decision making. They include such crucial considerations as the safety and treatment of employees, the diversity of management and workforce, the strength of internal checks and balances against dangerous governance practices, and a firm’s readiness to withstand the impacts of climate change. The executive actions detailed in this paper seek to limit the use of such considerations.

State officers have numerous powers and responsibilities over the financial health of their state, and these powers have a direct impact on their constituents’ access to economic opportunity and their cost of living. State executives make investments, select contractors, regulate securities, oversee the insurance sector, set utility rates, and enforce the law. They lead in the implementation of new laws, such as the 40 anti-ESG laws passed by state legislatures to date, and they have a bully pulpit from which to speak publicly. Together, state and local officials oversee the management and spending of more than $3.7 trillion in annual budgets, manage $4 trillion in public worker pensions, and oversee a $4.1 trillion municipal bond market. In short, they hold enormous power over our economic flourishing.

It should therefore be no surprise that a coordinated right-wing dark money campaign has leveraged executives to weaponize state financial management and oversight in support of preferred industries, like fossil fuels and gun manufacturers, for political reasons.

By the Numbers

• 113 executive actions tracked across 31 states since 2018

• 51 letters, 26 rules, 11 legal actions, 10 fund withdrawals, 6 pieces of legislation, 6 investigations, and 3 reports

• Attorneys General and State Treasurers each account for 50 actions — together, nearly 90% of all activity

• $12 billion+ withdrawn from BlackRock's management across 9 states, against a firm that manages nearly $10 trillion globally

• Texas alone withdrew $8.5 billion from BlackRock via the Texas Permanent School Fund

• Just 8% of Americans report being "very familiar" with ESG, despite three years of political campaigning around it