Jun. 09, 2022
June 9, 2022 This rule would hurt investors and businesses, including small businesses. And it would harm the American people by using their investment money to advance an un-American political agenda. This information would be used by activist investors to make it more expensive for businesses large and small to offer many of the products and services that make American life possible, including especially the production of reliable, affordable energy. It would give an immense advantage to green companies and would pressure more companies to go green, despite the impacts on the consumer. Companies, including small businesses, with low ESG scores could eventually find themselves denied loans, access to banking services, and even removed from major stock exchanges. The burden of compliance could prove crushing to many businesses, forcing many to close shop or dedicate revenue to a phalanx of lawyers. The agency admits that the rule would single-handedly more than double the cost of compliance for regulated companies. Those costs would first be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices and subsequently passed onto investors in the form of lower returns.