Last month, political commentator Glenn Beck visited with a group of Idaho legislators at the state Capitol to talk about a number of things, including the latest right-wing conspiracy surrounding “ESG” investing.

ESG is an investment strategy that stands for “environmental, social and governance.”

It’s a way for companies and individuals to invest in businesses that are perceived to be good stewards of the environment, are socially responsible and have equitable corporate governance.

It’s also a way to assess companies’ exposure to risks such as climate change, financial mismanagement, corruption and unfair labor practices — risks that could affect stock price and that investors would like to know about.

“I think ESG investing is good for investors,” Jason Norris, a chartered financial analyst and portfolio manager for Ferguson Wellman Capital Management, said in a phone interview. “It gives investors, both institutions and individuals, an option to invest in a values-based way. And people’s values are different, but it gives them an option.”

ESG has been around for a long time, especially in Europe, but it’s really caught on in the United States in the last few years.

But ESG has become the latest boogeyman for the far-right conspiracy theorists like Beck, who thinks that ESG is a plot cooked up by the World Economic Forum and people like George Soros to get everyone in the world to become politically correct, step in line with what they call the “climate alarmists” and undermine American capitalism.

Beck connects this to the World Economic Forum’s global environmental initiative called “The Great Reset.” It’s worth noting that The Great Reset was launched in June 2020, many years after ESG investing and its predecessor, “socially responsible investing,” came along.

All of this would be innocuous enough, except Beck persuaded Idaho legislators to get a resolution — introduced this week, fast-tracked through a committee and actually passed in the House — that describes the “detrimental” effects that ESG investing strategies have on Idaho businesses and “our values.”

Side note: On the same day the House passed the anti-ESG resolution, House Republicans successfully shot down another really controversial resolution celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area.

Good thing these guys have their priorities straight.

The anti-ESG resolution is littered with dubious claims and the repetition of conspiracies surrounding the Great Reset.

“ESG standards are designed to create a ‘great reset’ of capitalism and to revamp all aspects of our society and economy, from education to social contracts and working conditions,” the resolution claims.

On a video posted on YouTube in February, just before his visit to Idaho, Beck said he was visiting state legislators and governors to talk about anti-ESG legislation, saying 20 states had signed up to propose such legislation “because of this book,” referring to his book, “The Great Reset,” that he’s peddling.

“They’re using your money to destroy capitalism,” Beck says on the video, which really just serves as an infomercial for his book, which is on the split screen as he speaks.

He suggested that the 20 states are saying, “We’re pulling all of our teachers’ funds, we’re pulling all of our state funds, we’re pulling everything out of companies like Blackrock,” which is a financial investment and consulting firm that offers, among other investments, ways for clients to invest in ESG-guided funds. Beck also rails against Vanguard.

Beck weaves a vision of a vast new world order conspiracy involving George Soros (of course), “big banks,” “big business,” “big tech,” “the media” and the government, who apparently are all in it together and agreeing to the terms set by companies like Blackrock that are dictating ESG scores to them.

In reality, dozens if not hundreds of firms are out there doing independent ESG ratings, competing in the marketplace for business.

The resolution that passed the House was sponsored by Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls. In addition to every Democrat voting “no,” Republican Reps. Linda Wright Hartgen, Clark Kauffman, Laurie Lickley, Dustin Manwaring and Fred Wood voted against it.

“The widespread use of ESG standards by central banks, financial institutions, corporations, and governments threatens to restrict individual and economic rights and to usurp legislative processes, the Idaho Constitution, and the United States Constitution,” according to the resolution.

To the contrary, ESG investing is a product of the exercise of individual and economic rights, giving investors an option of where to put their dollars.

ESG is actually an offshoot of what some may remember as “socially responsible investing,” which has been around for a long time but at one time was considered exclusionary, according to Norris. It was reacting to investors’ desires to not invest in what they considered “bad actors.” Those “bad actors” depended on investors’ tastes: They might not want to invest in oil, tobacco or liquor companies. for example.

Norris pointed out that investors also have the option of investing in so-called “sin” stocks, such as alcohol, tobacco, oil and gas, adult entertainment and gambling companies, if they so choose.

Socially responsible investing developed into a strategy of looking for what were considered “good actors,” companies that are not only good stewards of the environment but actually prepare for a world of climate change.

It turns out that ESG investing is not only good for the conscience, it’s good for the wallet, too.

Last year, the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business and Rockefeller Asset Management looked at 1,000 research papers of ESG investing strategies from 2015-2020.

The study found a positive relationship between ESG and financial performance for 58% of the “corporate” studies focused on operational metrics, such as return on equity, return on assets or stock price.

ESG scoring has been a useful financial market tool that adds investor information, Karl Geisler, associate professor of economics and finance at Idaho State University, wrote to me in an email. In general, the more publicly available information about companies and investments makes financial markets more efficient.

Fortunately, all the resolution does is refer the matter to the Legislature’s Federalism Committee for further study. Why the Federalism Committee, which is charged with monitoring and reviewing “federal acts, laws, and regulations that may impact the jurisdiction, governance, and sovereignty of the state of Idaho”?

ESG has nothing to do with federal acts, laws or regulations.

But we have a hint as to why Beck is on this crusade — and it has everything to do with money.

“You see what they are doing,” Beck ominously intones in his February podcast. “Our time is limited, and I don’t say that with hyperbole. I say that to say to you: Get ‘The Great Reset’ book. … Buy the paper copy, because information will just disappear. It will be gone, and our voices will not be in your life.”