Tesla CEO Elon Musk included FSG in his criticisms on Twitter that have lasted for weeks, touching many areas, from his Twitter acquisition bid to politics.

His attack on the FSG came after Tesla stock was kicked out of the S&P 500 ESG Index on Wednesday despite its focus on making electric vehicles, solar panels, and battery packs.

Insider reports that S&P Global executed its fourth annual rebalance of the sustainably focused, large-cap index this week, and the portfolio looks relatively similar to the plain-vanilla S&P 500 index. The S&P 500 ESG Index holds 308 stocks and counts Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet as its top four holdings.

The report added that Tesla, which is the fifth largest holding in the S&P 500, was ineligible to be included in the ESG index due to its low S&P DJI ESG score, according to S&P Global. That score fell in the bottom 25% of its industry group peers. Tesla joins Berkshire Hathaway, Johnson & Johnson, and Meta Platforms as the top mega-cap companies that have been excluded from the index.

“ESG is an outrageous scam! Shame on S&P Global,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted in response to the development. “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 weaponised by phony social justice warriors,” Musk added.

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.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 18, 2022

Following Musk’s criticism, S&P Global explained why Tesla was removed from the index, citing many reasons. These reasons were said to have outweighed Tesla’s commitment to transitioning the world to cleaner energy, according to S&P Global.

“First and foremost, the GICS industry group in which Tesla is assessed experienced an overall increase in its average S&P DJI ESG score. So, while Tesla’s ESG score has remained fairly stable year-over-year, it was pushed further down the ranks relative to its global industry group peers,” S&P Global explained in a blog post.

As noted by Insider, the reason makes sense given that legacy automakers have turbocharged their efforts to jump into the electric vehicle space over the past year.

Other reasons for Tesla’s fallout from the index is its lack of a low-carbon strategy and codes of business conduct, and the company’s exposure to risks stemming from its involvement in controversial incidents.

“A media and stakeholder analysis identified two separate events centered around claims of racial discrimination and poor working conditions at Tesla’s Fremont factory, as well as its handling of the NHTSA investigation after multiple deaths and injuries were linked to its autopilot vehicles,” S&P Global said.

Those events led to a lower ESG score for Tesla, leading to its elimination from the index.

“While Tesla may be playing its part in taking fuel-powered cars off the road, it has fallen behind its peers when examined through a wider ESG lens,” S&P Global concluded.

Tesla stock fell about 5% in Wednesday trades amid a broader market sell-off. The world-leading EV manufacturer is facing an uptick in competition as more auto companies, particularly in Europe, make a shift to environment-friendly vehicles.

Musk’s continuous controversial tweets have also continued to affect Tesla’s stock and his personal fortune. Tesla’s stock has sunk by 29% since Musk announced his Twitter acquisition bid.  This has forced his net worth, which is largely tied to Tesla’s stock, to drop from $251 billion to $210 billion, or 16.3%.

But he appears not ready to stop. On Wednesday, Musk tweeted, following previous bashings of Democrats, that he will hence be switching his votes to the Republicans.

“In the past I voted Democrat, because 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. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold,” he wrote.

Musk’s unrelenting controversial tweets means that Tesla is likely going to take further hits.

A week after the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) intervened to resolve the aviation fuel crisis in the country, investigations revealed that supply from the NNPC has been used up as airlines grappled with price hikes amid scarcity.

The fuel scarcity forced most airlines to increase their fare to N55,000 as the base fare benchmark. Just recently, with the fuel scarcity still ravaging the aviation sector, domestic airlines in Nigeria have further raised their fare above the N50,000 base fare, with some airline tickets sold up to N60,000, as the fuel crisis in the industry continues to linger.

The scarcity has greatly affected the aviation sector on seamless conduct of air transport operations, which has led to a lot of flight cancellations and rescheduling. These airlines are also faced with the issue of low patronage, as not everyone can afford the base fare, and things have gone worse as most airlines have raised their fare to even N80,000.

There have been complaints from a lot of Nigerians as their plans and schedules have been altered due to the outrageous amount of airline fare prices. Recall that two weeks ago, airlines in the country threatened to shut down operations due to an increase in aviation fuel prices, but after swift intervention from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the house of representatives, and the aviation ministry, the airlines had to desist from shutting down to continue operating.

The fuel crisis disrupting airline operations in the country is simply a result of the failure of the leadership. I am always perplexed as to why a country so rich in crude oil will be faced with shortage of fuel. What an irony! The government has to be blamed for not building a functioning refinery that would have helped to mitigate the fuel crisis.

Despite the huge billions of naira being invested in building a refinery over the years, there has been a lot of sabotage which has made things not work. There is an urgent need for Nigeria’s local refineries to be fixed as a matter of national emergency, to put an end to this reoccurring fuel crisis.

This aviation fuel crisis negatively impacts the nation’s economy as air transportation, with its associated complex networks, is a major source of transportation for people, goods, and services. The air transport sector contributes about N59 billion to the national GDP of Nigeria, which supports about 159,000 jobs and pays about N8.5 billion in tax annually.

Jet fuel scarcity leads to consequential flight disruptions and cancellations which have mostly become a yearly occurrence in the country. The government must understand that adequate fuel supply and availability of fuel for airlines in the country is very vital for economic sustainability.

It might interest you to know that all jet fuel consumption in Nigeria is imported, which creates pressure on the jet fuel supply chain. Hence, importation may not always be sufficient to meet the needs of the airlines in the country. The government must be hell-bent on building refineries, not just to refine fuel, but also to produce jet fuel locally, to mitigate the issue of the jet fuel crisis, as sometimes the process of obtaining jet fuel takes a lot of time which is not ideal for a nation’s airline sector.

Air transportation is critical to businesses and other economic activities in Nigeria, as it is one of the major sources of revenue for the country which generates earnings from both passengers and cargo movements.

Evidence-based precision medicine with doctors performing scientific miracles in operating rooms. As an engineering student who was creating technologies for operating rooms, I was involved in some of those experiments, to engineer tools of the future, to make doctors stars before patients. Through abdominal, thoracic, etc  surgeries on pigs, I have tested tools, in operating rooms, which end up being used by the experts on humans.

But doing them in America does not remove the fact that Africa needs modern healthcare. Next quarter, we will unveil an amazing healthcare company. It is a biomedical research and clinical services startup that  integrates biomedical research insights with clinical service to advance precision medicine for improved patient outcomes.

It will save lives at scale in Africa. Stay tuned as we continue to build a new Africa through entrepreneurial capitalism. Tekedia Capital >> building the NEXT Africa.

Photo: testing a medical tool in operating room on a pig