State lawmakers determined to root out environmental, social and governance considerations from investment decisions struggled to get their bills across the finish line in 2024, new data showed.

As many state legislative sessions draw to a close for the year, four bills opposed to environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations introduced in 2024 and two that carried over from 2023 became law, according to a new report from Pleiades Strategy, a climate-focused consulting firm tracking such efforts. The count dropped from 23 bills enacted in 2023.

In all, 95 bills banning ESG investment risk and opportunity assessments from state contracts or pensions were introduced in 2024, the June 18 report said. Another 55 bills carried over from 2023.

Proponents of such laws have argued that ESG policies steer money away from fossil fuel-based industries that support state economies while weakening shareholder returns. So far, states have enacted 42 laws in 19 states, according to Pleiades' database.

Lawmakers proved less eager to pass anti-ESG laws in 2024 — an election year when politicians can ill afford criticism from business groups on whom they depend for donations, Connor Gibson, a co-author of the report, said in an interview.

"The costs related to the laws they've passed have continued to garner headlines, especially in Texas and Oklahoma," Gibson said. "It's caused a lot of political headaches."

In Kentucky, the state banking association sued the state over its ESG law allowing the attorney general to investigate banks' investment policies; the case that has yet to be resolved. A March 2024 study by the Texas Chamber of Commerce said municipalities in that state were paying $270 million annually in higher bond costs after an anti-ESG law was enacted in 2021. And in Oklahoma, a judge in May put that state's law on hold after retired members of a public pension fund sued.

Even so, 373 bills have been introduced in 39 states since 2021, according to the Pleiades Strategy tally, showing the breadth of the Republican-led backlash against ESG policies in the financial industry and beyond.

The now four-year anti-ESG campaign, funded by wealthy conservative donors and spearheaded by more than 15 advocacy groups, has had a clear chilling effect on the US private sector, the Pleiades Strategy report said. Even though many laws were watered down with amendments, the impact is evident, the analysis said.

One group, the Florida-based Foundation for Government Accountability, lobbied on behalf of 36 bills in 13 states, more than any other, Pleiades Strategy reported.

"The full effect of these messaging wins and the legal uncertainty brought by even weak bills with robust escape clauses is not easily measurable, but it is clear that these state policies are having a chilling effect on corporate dialogue on key issues, such as climate change and diversity, equity, and inclusion," the report said.

The Foundation for Government Accountability did not immediately return a request for comment.

Lawmakers "leveraged government to cause delay in the private sector on climate change," Gibson said, citing, among other things, Vanguard Group Inc.'s 2022 decision to exit the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, an international group of asset managers supporting net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

In February, two other large asset managers, JP Morgan Asset Management and State Street Global Advisors Inc. dropped out of the high-profile emissions mitigation network Climate Action 100+. Around the same time, asset manager BlackRock Inc. transferred its membership to a smaller subsidiary in the UK.

In March, several large US banks were also among eight that left the Equator Principles, a network formed in 2003 to help banks assess environmental and social risks when financing projects.