Since 2022, Pleiades Strategy has monitored ongoing state legislative attacks on the freedom to invest responsibly in order to help stakeholders understand the evolving anti-ESG policy landscape.
Our regularly updated Live Anti-ESG Legislation Tracker contains all bills and laws from 2021-present.
Anti-ESG State Legislation Tracker & Analysis
Republican Attacks on the Freedom to Invest Responsibly Falter Against Business, Labor, and Environmental Opposition
In 2023 Republican lawmakers in 37 states introduced 165 pieces of legislation to weaponize government funds, contracts, and pensions to prevent companies and investors from considering commonplace risk factors in making responsible, risk-adjusted investment decisions. This coordinated legislative effort, commonly referred to as the anti-ESG movement, generated massive backlash from the business community, labor leaders, retirees, environmentalists, and even some Republican politicians.
This report is the first comprehensive look at this legislative campaign and the broad effort to counter it. It follows the general arc of these 165 bills — where they came from, who sponsored them, who supported and opposed them, and how they fared.