Elon Musk Responds to Tesla's Lower ESG Rating Than ‘Woke’ Tobacco with a Scene from a Movie He Produced

Elon Musk has responded to how tobacco companies have used woke ideology as a cloak to receive a higher ESG (environmental, social, and governance) rating than Tesla. Musk's response also included a scene from a 2005 movie that he personally produced.

For those of you who happen to not be familiar with ESG ratings, they stand for environmental, social, and governance ratings. ESG ratings are a comprehensive score designed to measure a company's commitment to environmental, social, and governance investing standards.

These ratings are intended to help investors identify and understand financially material ESG risks to a business. Companies are evaluated based on publicly available information such as media sources and annual reports, with scores given for each environmental, social, and governance topic, which then get aggregated to an overall score.

The ratings are designed to help investors take into account the 'unmeasured' or 'unrepresented' environmental, social, and governance topics when making investment decisions.

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Currently, there are hundreds of billions of dollars in several financial firms and index funds locked up to be invested based on ESG ratings. Meaning, in addition to being moral guidelines, ESG ratings are also crucial for determining a company’s investor base and by association a company’s stock performance.

In theory, ESG ratings allow individual investors and institutions to make a more ethical investment decision while at the same time optimizing for long-term financial success, however, like anything that starts with good intentions and has to do with money, ESG ratings have been corrupted.

One glaring example of ESG ratings failing to meet their intended purpose is the ESG rating comparison between Tesla and big tobacco companies. Aron Sibarium who is a reporter at Free Beacon and Co-host of "Institutionalized" with Charles FLehman laid out the failure of ESG ratings in a Twitter thread.

On his Twitter thread, Aron highlighted some important points writing “From S&P Global to the London Stock Exchange, tobacco companies are crushing Tesla in the ESG ratings. How could cigarettes, which kill over 8 million a year, be deemed a more ethical investment than electric cars? One answer: Tobacco’s gone woke.”

Aron continues to write “S&P Global gives Elon Musk’s car company an ESG score of 37 out of 100. It gives Philip Morris, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, an ESG score of 84. Sustainalytics, another ESG rating, gives Tesla a worse score than Altria, one of the largest tobacco producers in the world.”

“The London Stock Exchange gives British American Tobacco an ESG score of 94—the third highest of any company on the exchange's top share index—while Tesla earns a middling 65. Why is this happening? It may have something to do with Big Tobacco’s corporate progressivism.”

Aron then points out how Big Tobacco is using racial diversity in hiring, supporting transgender viewpoints, and outreach programs to marginalized societies to cover up and greenwash the fundamentally harmful business of selling cigarettes.

You should read Aron’s Twitter thread in full to get the detail on how Big Tobacco has managed to earn a better environmental, social, and governance rating than Tesla, a company that builds electric cars, solar panels, and stationary storage batteries.

Musk responded to the Twitter thread writing “Great thread on how ESG is used as a moral cloak to hide bad behavior. Any cause that makes its virtue unquestionable will immediately be adopted by the unvirtuous.”

Musk in response to the thread also shares a scene from Thank You for Smoking which is a 2005 movie that Musk is credited as being Executive Producer. The movie is a satirical comedy film that follows the story of Nick Naylor, the chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, as he tries to defend the rights of smokers and present cigarettes in a positive light, while also trying to be a role model for his 12-year-old son.

Musk shares the scene writing “We made a movie about that!” The scene shows spokespeople from Big Tobacco, the alcohol & beverage lobby and the firearms lobby eating together and arguing their jobs are more important because of the products they represent cause more harm.

The scene highlights the absurdity of Tesla receiving a lower ESG rating than Tobacco companies that cause untold harm just because they have decided to use woke talking points as a cover.

Currently, according to most rating agencies, it’s a better long-term environmental and social decision to invest in tobacco companies than Tesla, however, we will be sure to keep you posted if the situation changes.

Until then make sure to follow our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.

So what do you think? Are you surprised to learn that tobacco companies have higher ESG ratings than Tesla? Do you think there is a possible explanation to warrant these ESG rating outcomes? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image: Courtesy of Tesla

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Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis for several years. He covers everything about Tesla from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.