Texas Governor Greg Abbott won’t be “bullied,” he says, “by woke ESG policies.” His state has a $2 trillion economy, Abbott boasts, and that allows the Lone Star state to set its own agenda on issues where a smaller state might have to cede power to the federal government or certain strong-armed corporate interests.
But who would try to bully big ol’ Texas? Abbott asserts that multinational banking behemoth Citigroup is trying to shake down Texans and make them go woke.
With “woke” being an ambiguous catchall that’s difficult to define, for clarity Abbott also adds the more specific “ESG” agenda he believes is being pushed on Texans by big corporations like Citigroup.
Texas has a $2 Trillion economy.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) February 10, 2023
We won’t be bullied or discriminated against by woke ESG policies.
We dropped Citigroup from the group of banks participating in biggest-ever municipal-bond transaction from Texas.https://t.co/fmG2Qrdybl
(Note: ESG, while also an ambiguous term, is still easier to define than “woke.” ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance — a set of criteria ESG investors believe is necessary for responsible corporate conduct, and which consulting giant McKinsey says is also a profit driver.)
Abbott writes: “We dropped Citigroup from the group of banks participating in biggest-ever municipal-bond transaction from Texas.” The reference is to a $3.4 billion bond deal that Citibank won’t win a part of because the company has espoused ESG policies that “discriminate” against the firearms industry, according Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Abbott’s boast that size matters isn’t new. In January he said: “Texas is America’s undisputed economic leader… (and) our $2 trillion economy is now the ninth-largest in the world.” (Citigroup, goes the thinking, may not be quite as disappointed missing out on, say, tiny Rhode Island’s next bond deal.)
Boasts about Texas’s size (and how to wield it) appeal to the significant number of Texans who like to think their state is already a pseudo-independent entity, capable of self-governance — in other words, to the kind of Texans who like to recite an old independence-minded twist on a famous phrase: If at first you don’t secede, try and try again. (There’s even a t-shirt.)
Abbott knows his audience.
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