Key Points
March 31 (Reuters) - Republican attorneys general from 21 U.S. states raised fresh concerns with asset managers over their consideration for environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in the votes cast at U.S. corporate annual meetings getting under way this spring...
The top state legal officers issued their challenge via a letter, provided by the office of Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen on Friday, sent to 53 of the largest U.S. fund firms including BlackRock Inc and the asset-management arms of State Street Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co ...
In the new letter, dated March 30, the attorneys general told the asset managers that "many of you have committed to take actions inconsistent with your clients' financial interests," such as by joining groups like the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, which encourages members to help reduce global emissions...
"As far as we can tell, your non-ESG funds do not disclose to investors that their investments will be used to further ESG goals, including pressuring companies to reduce emissions in economically destructive ways," the letter states...
Another section of the Republicans' letter describes several pending shareholder resolutions as "pushing three companies to stop using Vanguard" as their default retirement plan and noting Vanguard's fossil fuel investments...
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