Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria — truncated as ESG — is a doctrine sweeping through America’s corporations, and statements at a gathering of fossil fuel executives show it’s reached Texas’ vaunted oil and gas industry, too.
ESG is a type of investment grading system on which corporations are evaluated for their adherence to certain values — essentially a social credit score. Those values mirror many progressive bailiwicks like reaching net-zero emissions; promoting LGBT and minority-focused social issues, often described by the umbrella term “equity”; and unionization.
There is currently no centralized scoring system, and it can vary based on who is scoring. For example, BlackRock, the world’s largest portfolio manager, has its own scoring system.
Travis Stice — CEO of Diamondback Energy, a Midland-based Fortune 1,000 company worth $13 billion — defended the application of ESG practices in his company at the annual Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners (TIPRO) Association gathering. He said that the shareholders have demanded it and “It’s the right thing to do.”
Later in the day, two attendees remarked on Stice’s comments. “I was surprised hearing the Diamondback [CEO] talking as much ESG as he did,” one attendee said to another. “Five years ago, that would’ve been unthinkable.”
Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria — truncated as ESG — is a doctrine sweeping through America’s corporations, and statements at a gathering of fossil fuel executives show it’s reached Texas’ vaunted oil and gas industry, too.
ESG is a type of investment grading system on which corporations are evaluated for their adherence to certain values — essentially a social credit score. Those values mirror many progressive bailiwicks like reaching net-zero emissions; promoting LGBT and minority-focused social issues, often described by the umbrella term “equity”; and unionization.
There is currently no centralized scoring system, and it can vary based on who is scoring. For example, BlackRock, the world’s largest portfolio manager, has its own scoring system.
Travis Stice — CEO of Diamondback Energy, a Midland-based Fortune 1,000 company worth $13 billion — defended the application of ESG practices in his company at the annual Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners (TIPRO) Association gathering. He said that the shareholders have demanded it and “It’s the right thing to do.”
Later in the day, two attendees remarked on Stice’s comments. “I was surprised hearing the Diamondback [CEO] talking as much ESG as he did,” one attendee said to another. “Five years ago, that would’ve been unthinkable.”
