Elon Musk Says S&P 500 ‘Weaponized by Phony Social Justice Warriors’ After Tesla Doesn’t Make ESG List and Exxon Does

Zachary LeemanMay 18th, 2022, 3:12 pm
 
Elon Musk Rages Against ESG Global Index

Screenshot via YouTube

Elon Musk took to Twitter on Wednesday to blast the S&P Dow Jones Indices after the group left Tesla, the world’s largest electric car maker, off of their ESG index — a global list that ranks companies based on their environmental, social, and governance standards.

The Tesla CEO and potential future Twitter owner was especially angry at the fact that Exxon made the index, while his company was left off.

“Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social & governance (ESG) by S&P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list!” he tweeted. “ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.”

He then accused S&P Global of losing their “integrity.”

In a follow-up tweet, Musk posted a frequently-used meme pulled from the Dwayne Johnson movie Race to Witch Mountain, in which he accused the ESG list of simply determining how “compliant” one is with the “leftist agenda.”

In a Tuesday blog post, Margaret Dorn, senior director and head of ESG indices, North America, at S&P Dow Jones Indices, addressed Tesla’s exclusion from the updated list and claimed the company has “fallen behind its peers when examined through a wider ESG lens.”

The ESG list can be used to recommend companies that meet certain environment and social standards to investors. A variety of data points go into the list, from the environmental impact of a company to its treatment of employees, shareholders, customers, etc.

The wider lens included “a decline in criteria level scores related to Tesla’s (lack of) low carbon strategy and codes of business conduct” as rationale for Tesla not making the list.

Dorn further explained, by referencing claims of racial discrimination by workers, that Tesla’s “handling of the NHTSA investigation after multiple deaths and injuries were linked to its autopilot vehicles.”

In addition, a Media and Stakeholder Analysis, a process that seeks to identify a company’s current and potential future exposure to risks stemming from its involvement in a controversial incident, identified two separate events centered around claims of racial discrimination and poor working conditions at Tesla’s Fremont factory, as well as its handling of the NHTSA investigation after multiple deaths and injuries were linked to its autopilot vehicles. Both of these events had a negative impact on the company’s S&P DJI ESG Score at the criteria level, and subsequently its overall score.

Being dropped from the list comes amidst Musk’s bid to purchase Twitter, which received pushback from numerous left-wing commentators and politicians, though his involvement in Twitter is not cited by Dorn in the reasoning.

Musk did say in a Wednesday tweet while blasting the global ranking that “political attacks” on him would increase in the coming months, likely another direct swipe at Tesla’s updated ranking.

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Zachary Leeman

Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.