The Virginia Retirement System already doesn’t consider ESG criteria in its investment decisions. Attorney General Jason Miyares apparently doesn’t let a problem that doesn’t exist get in his way of proposing a solution that isn’t needed.
“Virginia families have spent decades working hard to build their retirement accounts. Investments must be driven by careful, calculated financial foresight, not clouded by unfounded ESG fads,” said Miyares, a Republican, in a press release from his office sent out to the news media last week to tout an advisory opinion in which he declared that the VRS Board of Trustees should prioritize financial returns and the best interests of beneficiaries above ESG policies when making investment decisions.
If you aren’t a dedicated viewer of right-wing news, ESG is environmental, social, governance, referred to as responsible investing or impact investing by its proponents, and woke investing by its detractors.
Investing based on ESG principles is aimed at putting capital behind companies that do business the right way in terms of their approach to energy use, natural resource conservation, worker safety, community involvement and accountability to investors.
Republicans don’t like ESG investing, and Republican AGs are known to use the machinery of their offices to discourage it.
Miyares, for instance, joined with 18 other Republican AGs in 2022 in serving Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo with a civil investigative demand to force them to produce documents related to their involvement with the United Nations Net-Zero Banking Alliance, among the many such efforts that you can find when you use the Google machine.
The advisory opinion related to VRS that Miyares handed down last week is the classic example of a solution in search of a problem.
VRS spokesperson Virginia Sowers told the Associated Press in an email that the system doesn’t have a policy to prioritize ESG investments.
“To meet its fiduciary duty, VRS carefully analyzes economic factors and assesses monetary risk to achieve the highest level of return for a given level of risk over the long term,” Sowers said. “This analysis does not include reviewing investments through a ‘social screen,’ nor does VRS deploy dedicated ESG funds in its retirement plans.”
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Chris Graham
