Tesla cut from S&P 500 ESG Index, Musk tweets fury
STORY: Elon Musk tweeted outrage after Tesla lost its spot on the widely followed S&P 500 index for ESG which tracks the stocks of companies that it ranks highly for environment, social and governance standards.
The removal is apparently because of issues including racial discrimination and crashes linked to its autopilot cars.
Musk tweeted, quote, "Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social & governance (ESG) by S&P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list! ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors."
Tesla has become the world’s most valuable automaker by expanding into battery storage for electric and solar-power systems.
A representative for S&P said the list Musk may have been referring to was QUOTE “not a ranking of best companies by ESG score...” and that it was a blog post of the biggest companies by market cap on the index - once Tesla was removed.
Investors concerned about issues like diversity and climate change have poured billions into funds using ESG criteria to pick stocks.
Musk and others have complained that S&P Dow Jones Indicies and its rivals conflate too many issues by bundling ESG concerns into one total score.
In other Wednesday (May 18) tweets -- Musk also said that while he voted for Democrats in the past, he will now vote for Republicans because, quote “...they were (mostly) the kindness party. But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican,"
Tesla's stock fell nearly 7% on Wednesday.
