Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla could soon be known for his criticism against any human or entity who dares to criticize him or his companies rather that his leadership role in these companies. In the past has insulted a diver, made false claims to the SEC, put juvenile poop emojis to posts he disagrees with, flip flopped on his acquisition of Twitter, spoke of changing political views and much more. The latest entity to face his ire is the S&P ESG Index, which removed Tesla Inc. from its index.
The S&P ESG Index deleted Tesla Inc., on Wednesday and the changes are retroactive effective May 2– ESG stands for environmental, social and governance. However, Tesla is still a part of the regular S&P 500 that measures companies by market capitalization.
On May 17, 2022, Margaret Dorn, the Senior Director, Head of ESG Indices, North America, S&P Dow Jones Indices explained the rationale behind the deletion in a blog post.
She said that Tesla was ineligible in the inclusion as it had a “low S&P DJI ESG Score.” Some of the reasons for the low score were as follows:
A low (lack of) carbon strategy
Codes of business conduct.
Tesla has faced criticism for two different events that showed racial discrimination in its factory, in Fremont, California. There was also a mention of “poor working conditions at Tesla’s Fremont factory.”
Other problem areas mentioned by the blog post included the way Tesla handled National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigations which were undertaken after multiple deaths and injuries caused by the electric vehicle maker’s “autopilot vehicles.”
The blog said that Tesla might be added back in a future rebalance.
In its first quarter earnings, Tesla said that it was under investigation due to its handling of waste in California. The report also mentioned that it had paid a fine in Germany as it failed to meet “take back obligations” for spent batteries. Weeks ago, Tesla had opened its first Europe gigafactory near Brandenburg, in Germany.
After being deleted from the S&P ESG Index, Elon Musk posted his criticism on the social media platform Twitter and commented that Exxon made it to the list while Tesla didn’t and added that “ESG is a scam.” He also commented that it had been “weaponized by phony social justice warriors.”
Elon Musk slammed the S&P ESG Index again in the early hours of Thursday responding to investor Cathy Wood’s post. Elon Musk tweeted, “A clear case of wacktivism.”
Image Steve Jurveston
