Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti told The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy that ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) investing is “dead” at the “biggest asset manager in the world” on Friday as a result of a settlement reached Friday between the State of Tennessee and BlackRock, Inc.

In December 2023, Skrmetti filed a consumer protection lawsuit against BlackRock’s ESG investing, arguing that the hedge fund had misled consumers in Tennessee about the scale and impacts of its ESG initiatives for several years.