For twitter, it's one thing even if it's "spamming" in a dozen days. What made musk angry was Tesla's removal from the S & P 500 ESG index. ESG is an investment concept and enterprise evaluation standard that pays attention to enterprise environment, society and governance performance rather than financial performance.
Overnight, Tesla's share price fell nearly 7%, and foreign media analysts said it was related to the impact of Tesla's removal from the S & P 500esg index.
"ESG is a scam" is one of Musk's "award-winning speeches" on twitter. Starting from around 12 noon on Wednesday, local time, musk has sent more than a dozen twitter messages (including related tweets) in 24 hours. It is sprayed almost every hour except sleeping, from day to night, and from night to day.
At first, Musk's anger was directed directly at ESG. He seemed angry for Tesla: "Tesla is clearly the company that makes the greatest contribution to the environment!"
But then Musk's anger extended to the political field, citing the satirical picture of ESG catering to the left, and saying that he had always voted for the Democratic Party because "they (mainly) Goodwill parties", but now he changed his mind: "they have become a separatist party and hatred. When I can no longer support them, I will vote for the Republican Party."
Perhaps as a sign of sincerity, musk put this twitter at the top for several hours.
In fact, the change of Musk's political position has long been a clue. Last December, musk chose to move Tesla headquarters from California, the Democratic base, to Texas, the Republican base.
Musk is well aware of the weight of this statement. He predicted on Twitter: "political attacks on me will escalate sharply in the coming months."
After musk tapped the keyboard for a day, the media insider released a report that musk sexually harassed a stewardess in 2016, not only exposing his genitals, but also asking for "more services".
Musk responded, saying the report was "for political purposes", and he didn't elaborate on why.
Musk now has a lot of buffs superimposed on him: he is not only the richest man in the new world, but also has more than 90 million followers on twitter. What's more, recently, it seems that he is likely to directly acquire this vital social media. His political statement is enough to attract the attention of American politics.
The ESG evaluation system, the "culprit" of all this, has also become the focus of attention and controversy all over the world with Musk's Twitter offensive.
A
People concerned have explained that Tesla was removed from the S & P 500esg index. Margaret Dorn, senior director of North America and head of ESG index of S & P Dow Jones index, posted on its official website on May 17 that the poor working environment and racial discrimination exposed by Tesla's Fremont plant in California, the handling of casualty investigations related to automatic driving, and the lack of low-carbon strategy and business code of conduct are all detrimental to Tesla.
Although Tesla has played a role in phasing out fuel vehicles, Dorn believes that it has lagged behind its peers from a broader ESG perspective.
This is clearly unacceptable to musk.
This is not the first time musk has opened fire on ESG. Before that, musk has publicly criticized ESG rating for being "false" and "meaningless", and even called it "the incarnation of the devil".
The concept of ESG originated from socially responsible investment, and its concept was officially proposed by the United Nations Environment Programme in 2004. It adds another ruler to the "performance" evaluation criteria of enterprises: on the "excellence" of an enterprise, it should not only make money, but also play a positive role in the earth and society.
Nowadays, ESG has become an important management and investment concept, and it is the international mainstream enterprise non-financial disclosure system. At present, the number of ESG rating agencies in the world has exceeded 600, and the stock exchanges and regulatory agencies of many countries have successively formulated relevant policies to require listed companies to voluntarily, independently or compulsorily disclose ESG related information.
In the eyes of more and more investors, ESG is an important reference for the medium and long-term performance of an enterprise. It is not difficult to understand why Tesla's share price fell on Wednesday due to its removal from the S & P 500 ESG index.
However, musk criticized ESG, not that he disagreed with linking the improvement of the world with the evaluation of enterprises - after all, this is one of his strengths, but that he despised the existing ESG evaluation system.
In Tesla's 2021 influence report released in early May, it cue came to the "old friend" ESG at the beginning: "there are fundamental defects in the current ESG rating method."
Tesla also said in the report: "some people may think that the higher the percentage of electric vehicles sold by an automobile manufacturer in total sales, the better its ESG score. However, this is not the case. As long as the company produces a large number of high fuel consuming vehicles and slightly reduces greenhouse gas emissions, its ESG rating is likely to rise."
The report points out that the emissions of most vehicles account for 80% - 90% of the total vehicle emissions, but the main consideration in rating is the production link.
Like musk's dissatisfaction expressed in his tweet, as a world-famous electric vehicle brand, it has been removed from the S & P 500esg index and has no place in the ranking, while Exxon (ExxonMobil, the global oil and gas giant) ranks among the top 10 in the world, which is against common sense.
The report notes that the current ESG report focuses on measuring the dollar value of risk / return rather than the scope of its positive impact on the world.
According to the comments in Musk's and Tesla's reports in the past, it does not completely deny ESG, but he thinks that the current ESG index system is "ineffective" because it is not managed. As stated in the report, musk advocates that the ESG index should reflect a basic question: does the development of this company have a positive impact on the world?
B
Such an attitude actually reflects Musk's previous democratic position. At this time, it is not only spraying the ESG system, but also "rising" to change the political position and support the Republican Party, which is not just an impulse under the heat of the head.
The world must remember how trump withdrew from the Paris agreement after a disagreement. The Republican Party has always focused on environmental protection and other major issues, including social responsibility.
According to a Pew Research Center poll last year, only about 10% of people on the right think climate change is a top priority, compared with about 49% on the left.
Biden has shouted the slogan of achieving net zero emissions by 2025 during the election campaign, and promised to ask enterprises to provide more details on environmental risks and greenhouse gas emissions.
After taking office, Biden immediately brought the United States back to the Paris Agreement and passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure construction bill (including the construction of infrastructure that can effectively resist the impact of climate change).
After the COVID-19, the wider attention of the outside world to the ESG issue, coupled with the Biden government's supportive policies on the ESG issue, has made the ESG investment momentum strong. According to refinitiv Lipper, by the end of November last year, the inflow of global ESG funds had reached a record US $649 billion, higher than that in 2020 and 2019, accounting for 10% of global fund assets.
The increasing status of ESG under the Democratic Party makes the securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) even deliberately consider regulating the disclosure of corporate climate related information.
Now that the mid-term election in the United States is approaching, the ESG issue is under debate: should companies be forced to disclose ESG related information? Can ESG indicators be mentioned as equal to financial indicators in terms of regulations?
On May 10, former US Vice President Mike Burns said frankly at a meeting that he wanted to control ESG. Utah's state treasury secretary has also said that the ESG index believes too much in the "left" belief, blurring the boundary between subjective judgment and objective financial judgment.
If Republicans control the house of representatives in the mid-term elections, they may take action to curb ESG related regulations.
In such disputes, musk announced a high-profile change of political position, and its power can be imagined.
After musk sprayed ESG and said he wanted to vote for the Republican Party, insider released a report that SpaceX had paid $250000 to a stewardess to settle the sexual harassment charges he filed against musk in 2018.
According to insider, the stewardess worked as an cabin attendant at SpaceX. Her charges against musk included exposing her private parts, stroking her legs without consent, and giving a horse in exchange for a "massage".
Musk's response came quickly. He first told the media that the report was out of "political intent", but did not explain it too much.
As of press time, musk tweeted at 1 a.m. local time, saying that "the attack on me should be viewed from a political point of view. This is their standard (despicable) script, but nothing can stop me from fighting for a better future and your right to freedom of speech."
This coincides with Musk's warning after announcing the change of political position the day before: "political attacks on me will increase sharply in the coming months."
Musk then tried to defuse the scandal with humor, saying that the term "elongate" should be used to refer to his own scandal. Its fans also interact playfully: Elon gate, to Mars.
It's more important for musk not to further influence the existing ESG system if he doesn't want to further improve his position.
It is difficult to say whether musk really foresaw and anticipated the political attack against himself, or whether the scandal was cleverly put into the basket of ESG and extreme left-wing issues by musk, but musk undoubtedly occupied the highland of public opinion again.