Idaho lawmakers have embarked on their second attempt to ban some companies from considering environmental impacts in investment decisions with help from outside national lobbying groups.
“As long as legislators are asking for help and support … we’ll be there to help them,” Doug Taylor, a lobbyist for Opportunity Solutions Project, said. The Opportunity Solutions Project works with the Foundation for Government Accountability, the Florida-based organization that drafted the proposed legislation.would ban banks from using ESG factors in investments.
Republican state Sen. Doug Ricks, who co-sponsored the bill, said he wants to protect industries from “outside influences, big corporations from outside Idaho from telling us what is important in our state.” “We don’t want these institutions to force their ideological beliefs down on the people,” Republican state Rep. Josh Tanner, who sponsored the House bill, said.“They have a clear fiduciary obligation to their investors to maximize their returns, not prioritize environmental ideology,” Labrador said.