S&P Dow Jones Indices has excluded Tesla Inc. from the S&P 500 ESG index following its annual rebalancing, considering that the electric car manufacturer lags behind other companies on a number of ESG criteria (environmental, social and corporate governance factors). The decision angered Tesla CEO Ilon Musk, who called ESG a “grand scam.”

“Exxon leads the world’s top 10 companies in ESG criteria and Tesla is not ranked!” – Musk wrote on his Twitter page, adding that ESG “has become a weapon of fake social justice activists.”

“Tesla is doing more for the environment than any other company has ever done,” Musk said.

S&P Dow Jones reported that Tesla’s position has deteriorated from its 2021 ESG ranking on a number of criteria, noting the company’s lack of an emissions reduction strategy and business ethics issues, among other things.

“Tesla may be playing a role in taking internal combustion engine vehicles off the road, but the company lags its peers when measured more broadly in terms of ESG criteria”, said Margaret Dorn, senior director of ESG indices at S&P Dow Jones.

In a series of tweets posted by Musk, he also said he expects a “major escalation of political attacks” against him in the coming months. In one of the tweets, he cited a meme in which the answer to a question about what an ESG rating is is “it depends on how aligned your business is with the leftist agenda.” In addition, the billionaire said he intends to vote Republican in the future, although he has previously supported Democrats.

Other companies that dropped out of the S&P 500 ESG rating this year include Berkshite Hathaway, Johnson & Johnson and Meta Platforms Inc. (recognized in Russia as an extremist organization and banned).