The board that manages Virginia’s state employee pension system cannot consider a company’s stance on social issues like gay marriage or climate change when deciding where to invest taxpayer dollars, Attorney General Jason Miyares said Friday.
“It is my opinion that Virginia law imposes fiduciary duties on the [Virginia Retirement System] Board of Trustees that preclude it from basing investment decisions on environmental, social and/or corporate governance policies rather than financial considerations,” Miyares wrote Friday in a letter to House Del. Nicholas Freitas (R-Culpeper) obtained first by The Daily Wire.
Liberal activists score companies based on their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies and encourage investors to choose targets based on those scores, rather than prospects of profitability. Critics say ESG scoring is nothing but virtue signaling, an effort to reward left-leaning companies without actually encouraging social change. For example, Shell has a much higher ESG score than Tesla, which makes electric cars, but is owned by Elon Musk.
Virginia’s move could have ramifications across the country. Government employee retirement funds are some of the largest investors in the United States, managing billions of dollars in taxpayer funds. States that prioritize ESG over profitability could see poor returns on investments, straining state financial systems and hurting retirees.
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In recent years, private equity firms like BlackRock and major labor unions have embraced ESG to the detriment of investors and compliant companies. Tractor Supply, Anheuser-Busch, and Harley Davidson have all been accused of pandering to liberal investors at the cost of alienating a broader customer base. Anheuser-Busch’s flagship beverage, Bud Light, lost more than a billion dollars in sales after it catered to a fringe transgender minority while criticizing its burly blue-collar base.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti sued BlackRock over its ESG efforts last year, while Mississippi has threatened the bank with fines.
Virginia’s retirement fund manages money intended for pensions for state employees and participating local governments and school systems. The state’s constitution says the money may not be used “for any purpose other than as provided in law for benefits, refunds, and administrative expenses,” and “benefits shall be funded using methods which are consistent with generally accepted actuarial principles.”
A Board of Trustees is charged with “ensuring the overall soundness of the Retirement System” and has a “fiduciary duty,” the legal analysis said. Miyares said that “as commonly understood, ESG-based investment involves ‘investors seek[ing] out socially conscious companies and try[ing] to facilitate change in companies to achieve ESG-related goals.’”
“The Board’s investment of trust funds is ‘governed exclusively’ by Article 3.1 of the Code chapter governing the [Virginia Retirement System],” none of whose provisions “grants the Board specific authority to make investments according to ESG policies,” he wrote.
Rather, the state code says the board “shall discharge its duties with respect to the Retirement System solely in the interest of the beneficiaries thereof.”
“Adherence to this duty requires the Board to ‘exclude all selfish interests and all consideration of the welfare of third persons,’” the opinion said.
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“Other Virginians and society at large are not the intended beneficiaries of the VRS,” it said. “The sole purpose of the retirement system is to foster financial security for public employees upon their departure from public service… Other public policy concerns and initiatives necessarily are beyond the scope of the Board’s authority.”
“Accordingly, it is my opinion that the SRS Board is subject to fiduciary duties that preclude it from basing its investment decisions on ESG policies rather than financial considerations,” it concluded.
Miyares, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, and Lt. Governor Winsome Sears are Republicans, while the state legislature is controlled by Democrats. As Youngkin approaches the end of his constitutionally-mandated single term, Miyares is seen as a contender for governor.
