In case you missed it, Tesla got kicked out of the S&P 500’s ESG Index recently. 

 

Elon Musk immediately took to Twitter to express his frustration by saying, “despite Tesla doing more for the environment than any company ever!” He added that ESG “has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.”

Musk was also replying to Cathie Wood’s post in which the money manager called the move “ridiculous,” and that it was “Not worthy of any other response.”

 

The world’s richest man responded, “ESG is an outrageous scam!” 

 

And lastly, he said: that “ESG is a devil incarnate.”

 

It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.  

What is ESG? 

The acronym ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance.  Environmental factors company’s sustainability, social factors examine how a company treats people, and governance factors consider how a company is managed.

 

It seems evident that these factors mean different things to different people.  

 

 

ESG originated at the U.N., probably by the well-intentioned people who wanted to help the environment and society. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the well-meaning people were hijacked by extremists that weaponized ESG for their political agenda. ESG now acts as self-appointed thought police for the corporate world. 

 

In essence, the ESG movement preaches that humans have an evil impact on the environment, and we should stop everything we’re doing and go net zero. 

 

As Alex Epstein, author of Fossil Future points out, “it’s an anti-human religion that believes that our impact is primarily evil and that nature, as a vengeful God, will punish us for our sins.”

 

 

Eliminate fossil fuels with no alternative

The ESG radicals aim to eliminate all the fossil energy and replace it with renewables. 

But while renewables have a huge potential, they have been a colossal disaster so far. Solar and wind have not replaced fossil fuel, nuclear or hydro production of power, and in reality, they added costs to the grid operators due to their intermittent nature. Besides, renewables can’t replace energy sources in heavy-duty transportation, like cargo ships or aviation. 

It’s important to realize that energy consumption is the core of everything we do, and fossil fuels are essential for human flourishing, especially in developing countries. To deny them growth is to be anti-human. 

 

Tesla is not green enough for the ESG activists

Think about it for a minute. 

Tesla is the company that is revolutionizing renewable energy and has done more than any other company or carbon emission initiative globally. And yet this essential renewable company is now kicked out of the ESG index. 

Six large oil companies, including Exon Mobil, are considered top ranking ESG companies, but Tesla is no longer on the list.