After 19 Attorneys General singled out BlackRock for their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) activism, the world’s largest asset manager shot back and rebuked them for misleading the public about their business practices. But BlackRock—whose CEO Larry Fink once said companies “have to force behavior”—is forcing ESG onto clients and leaving a path of destruction.

“We do not . . . dictate to companies what specific emission targets they should meet or what type of political lobbying they should pursue,” the company responded in a letter dated August 4th.

BlackRock insists they aren’t forcing the boycott of fossil fuel investments, but their actions suggest otherwise. Fink claimed in 2020 that their clients were primarily focused on fighting climate change. In a recent company sustainability report, BlackRock outlined how they will hold companies accountable if they fail to disclose climate-related risks or adopt ESG metrics like net-zero. The company added companies that forgo ESG investments “face material financial risks in the transition to a low-carbon economy.”