According to Carson Block, founder of Muddy Waters Research, many of the well-known companies that dominate the ESG investment space are taking advantage of the US government and investors. “I want to save the world,” the popular short seller said in an interview with “Squawk Box” outside of CNBC’s Delivering Alpha conference on Wednesday. “I believe we really have a problem. However, the companies that I have seen, are not the ones that will save us. Many of these companies are just money grabs, dress-and-coats.” Get yourself green.” ESG, or environmental, social and governance investment, encompasses a wide range of non-financial factors that potential shareholders use when looking to invest in companies. It gained popularity amid the green investment trend with companies like BlackRock catching on while also receiving much criticism. Block said a bunch of companies he’s short on – including XL Fleet, Danimer Scientific and Sunrun solar stock – are “doing their own thing” and misleading investors. “When you go into the solar space – like Sunrun – I mean, they are distorting the US government by inflating their tax subsidy base, so they are corrupting the US government, they are fool investors by creating this illusion of a lot of value at the end of the rainbow,” he said. Block also called on companies, which he said were trying to make up for wrongdoing in one area of their business, and believes more money should go into nuclear energy, especially amid the crisis. The energy crisis is happening in Europe. “There is a lot of foam in that space that still needs to be released,” says Block.