On Tuesday, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis approved measures to protect Florida’s investment from “woke environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG),” which will ensure that “all investment decisions focus solely on maximizing the highest rate of return,” according to a press release from DeSantis’ office.
“Corporations across America continue to inject an ideological agenda through our economy rather than through the ballot box,” DeSantis said of the decision.. “Today’s actions reinforce that ESG considerations will not be tolerated here in Florida, and I look forward to extending these protections during this legislative session.”
“Thanks to the leadership of Governor DeSantis, the Florida Cabinet reaffirmed today that we don’t want a single penny of our dollars going to woke funds,” said Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis. “We need asset managers to be laser focused on returns and nothing more. Florida’s not going to subsidize the actions of a bunch of Leftist ideologues who hate America; we’re not going to let a bunch of rich people in Manhattan or Europe try to circumvent our democracy.”
As explained in the press release, DeSantis has also proposed a bill for the state’s upcoming legislative session to codify these actions and restrict discriminatory ESG practices by prohibiting “big banks, credit card companies, and money transmitters from discriminating against consumers for their religious, political, or social beliefs.”
“Barring financial institutions from considering so called ‘ESG Credit Scores’ in banking and lending practices to prevent Floridians from obtaining financial services like loans, lines of credit, and bank account… [And] Permanently prohibiting State Board of Administration (SBA) fund managers from considering ESG factors when investing the state’s money,” the press release added.
