The Anti-ESG Landscape
Where US states restrict or support ESG in public investing — and how the largest asset owners and managers are repositioning. For stewardship teams navigating a bifurcated market.
Where each state stands
Posture on ESG in public investing — hover to focus, click for detail and legal basis.
Posture reflects enacted law and/or fund-level policy on ESG in public investing (energy-generation laws are out of scope). Drawn from public legislative trackers (Pleiades Strategy, Ropes & Gray, Davis Polk, MultiState) and official sources as of September 2026; several anti-ESG laws (e.g. TX, OK) have been partly struck down by courts. Verify against primary sources before relying on it.
Texas
Enacted statuteSB 13 (2021) boycott list and Comptroller blacklist of financial firms; a federal court struck down parts of SB 13 in 2026.
The largest allocators are repositioning.
Observed, sourced moves from the managers and owners whose choices set the market's direction.
Left the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (Jan 2025) and moved its Climate Action 100+ membership to its international arm (2024); support for E&S shareholder proposals fell below 2% in the 2025 season. Frames stewardship around financial materiality.
Pulling back
Exited Net Zero Asset Managers in Dec 2022 — the first major defection — and backs few environmental/social proposals, stressing it is not a policy-setter for portfolio companies.
Pulling back
Left Climate Action 100+ (Feb 2024), citing its independent proxy approach, and has narrowed thematic engagement while keeping governance stewardship.
Pulling back
Hold an 'engage, don't divest' line — CalPERS' $100bn Climate Action Plan (>$53bn committed) and CalSTRS' 2050 net-zero target with a 50% interim cut by 2030.
Holding the line
NYC Retirement SystemsTarget a net-zero portfolio by 2040, have divested ~$3bn+ from fossil-fuel reserve owners, and require public-markets managers to submit credible net-zero plans.
Leaning inIncreasingly run split stewardship policies by jurisdiction — a materiality-first US posture alongside SFDR / SRD II commitments in Europe, sometimes routed through non-US entities.
BifurcatingThe litigation front: a Texas-led antitrust suit against BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street (Nov 2024; Vanguard settled for $29.5M); a Texas proxy-advisor disclosure law preliminarily enjoined (Aug 2025); and the Spence v. American Airlines ERISA ruling (2025) on ESG in plan stewardship.
Anti-ESG in 2026: the stewardship team's field guide.
The complete, sourced read — state-by-state legal status, the litigation front, allocator positioning, and a practical playbook for engaging on financial materiality across a bifurcated US/EU market.