Earlier this week, President Joe Biden issued his first veto on legislation that passed Congress that would nullify a rule adopted by the Department of Labor to permit retirement fiduciaries to consider environmental, social, governance (E.S.G.) factors in investment decisions.
Here, I explain what that rule is but more so what E.S.G.s are and why investors are using them.
I then survey the pushback on E.S.G. use to show that conservatives are not only skeptical but so are more progressive members of Biden's administration and agency leadership.
Though it remains to be determined if E.S.G. initiatives are the way of the future, I conclude with some brief insight into how the conversation should not be whether to allow such considerations but how to make them more efficient and reliable.