The head of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk, has publicly expressed outrage that the oil giant is rated “green” and Tesla is not even present in the rankings.
“Exxon is in the Top 10 of the best companies in the world for the environment and social environment. Meanwhile, Tesla is not even in the rankings! ESG is a scam. The index has become a weapon of fake warriors for social justice“Musk wrote on Twitter.
ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) is an index that measures the environmental and social responsibility of different companies. The purpose of the index is to make the shares of “more responsible companies” more attractive to Wall Street traders.
Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social & governance (ESG) by S&P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list!
ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2022
Musk’s statement comes after S&P Dow Jones indexes removed Tesla and several other companies from their ESG index. Explaining the move, S&P Dow Jones said Tesla was lagging behind its counterparts for a variety of reasons, including its carbon strategy.
However, Musk’s words hide more truth than financial institutions are willing to admit.
Exxon is the seventh largest oil refinery in the world, with 37 oil refineries in 21 countries. In fact, it is the largest American oil company. In 2018, the Research Institute for Political Economy ranked Exxon tenth among US air polluting corporations, thirteenth in greenhouse gas emissions and sixteenth in terms of water pollutant emissions.
However, Exxon funds various environmental and social causes, even publicly supporting the introduction of carbon taxes. This money, spent mainly on PR and a higher ESG rating, makes one of the biggest polluters a “green company”.
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