What You Need To Know About ESG And What To Do – With Treasurer Riley Moore: What is ESG? What are people trying to do with ESG? How are the States combating it? Is America following in the footsteps of China? Are there anti-ESG laws in YOUR state? Tune in to hear Treasurer Riley Moore discuss the important answers to these questions and more!

Air Date: 06/14/2022

Guest: Treasurer Riley Moore

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note: Â As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith and the Culture

Rick:

It is a great day at WallBuilders Live. Hope is the same for you, despite all the negative that’s going on out there in the culture. Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. That’s where we get hope for the culture and hope for the future. That’s why we can have the attitude of John Quincy Adams, “Duty is ours, results are God’s.”

We can be happy warriors, as Reagan said. We can do what James says, to count it all joy when we experienced various trials. Why? Because we know the truth, we know God’s word, and we know that when we go through these tough times, He can use them to make us stronger. And that includes not just us as individuals, it means the same for a nation.

So as we face the trials of dealing with the negative outcome of the negative inputs that we’ve had as a nation, the socialism and communism and despotism that’s been poured into our culture, the critical race theory, teaching our kids to hate each other, you know, all the different things that have happened to move America away from its founding principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and truth.

As that has happened, we don’t have to despair, we can look at that and say, hey, there are answers to these problems. There’s a biblical perspective that can solve these issues. There’s a historical perspective from which we can learn. And then there’s, of course, the constitutional perspective that we want to use in our nation to apply this thing properly.

So if you liked that idea: biblical, historical constitutional perspective, on the tough issues of the day, if you want to have some joy in the fight, and you want to be a happy warrior, you have come to the right place at WallBuilders Live.

My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s constitution coach. And it is my great honor to serve here with David and Tim Barton, two incredible guys. If you have not had them out to speak at your church or your community, you should check it out at wallbuilders.com. But David is America’s premier historian, I’m telling you, that guy has more in his head of the founding fathers writings and documents than anybody alive.

ESG

I mean, you can sit down with him and ask just about any of these Founding Fathers and things that happen. And boom, right off the cuff he can tell you about, it’s just incredible. Anyway, he’s America’s premier historian. He’s our founder here at WallBuilders. And Tim Burton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders.

And the same thing, I mean, he Tim has all of this information about the founders, not just the founders, but things that happened before the founding era. And that’s why you should read their book, ‘the American Story’. It’s just unbelievable how much of the truth has been twisted. And these guys are masters at bringing that truth back around. So, check all that out today at wallbuilders.com, let’s dive in.

Alright, David and Tim, a little later in the program, we have the treasurer from West Virginia with us, Riley Moore will be our guests, we’re going to be talking about some of the actions that states are taking to prevent some of these companies, basically stop investing with companies that are trying to destroy our energy industry here in America.

But I keep hearing this phrase ESG. I know Glenn Beck has covered it. Other news outlets have covered it for a while. But it’s becoming like a buzzword. I think I saw Elon Musk refer to it. And I don’t understand it. So what is ESG? What are they trying to do with ESG? And how are then the states combating it?

Back to Obama

David:

ESG is something that goes back into the Obama administration. He didn’t start it. He was part of it when they held the World Economic Forum had a meeting and right before the climate Change Accords out of Paris. So the three days before that, the top 400 banks in the world got together and they said, look, there’s something about to come out of the Paris Climate Accords, and we as banks, as economic institutions have to be able to enforce that. And one of the primary things, and it’s called ESG and we’ll get into that in a minute, but it means Energy, and then Social and then Governance. And so those are three woke terms.

And you need to understand those terms in the sense of woke ideology. So the E, the Energy says, it’s what we’re already hearing that they’re predicting that by 2030 there will be no more combustion engine plants in the United States, everything is moving to electricity, to electric cars, to some type of things that are non-fossil fuels.

And so that’s what Biden announced back in some of those bailouts that he was doing a year ago. And now we see all this inflation going on and he’s not doing anything on inflation. But he’s saying, yeah, I know, this is painful, but this is going to get us off of our reliance on fossil fuels. So the energy side says, if you are invested in things that deal with fossil fuels, you get penalized. And ESG, some people call it social credit scores, but this is what banks will now use whether they make loans to you.

And so on this fossil fuel stuff, as you remember, one of the big things in agriculture, the reason they don’t like agriculture is methane, you know, the cows produce methane. And so what happens with an ESG kind of score is they would look at Rick and say, you know, Rick, you got a 400 acre ranch out there in Dripping Springs and you’ve got 200 cows on that ranch, and that’s a lot of methane. And you know what, we didn’t find any solar panels on your ranch.

Social Justice

There was no windmill setup. So we’re just not going to be able to loan you any money anymore for what you’re doing. We’re going to talk to the treasurer Riley in a little bit. But they said West Virginia, you guys do coal, we can’t loan any money to any coal companies. And if you’re a coal worker, man, we can’t loan you money.

So if you’re not woke in the sense of you have to line up with their climate position that we’re going total away from all fossil fuels, then you lose the ability to get money. The societal part is really kind of how woke you are. That’s a social governance type side where you are on all sorts of different issues.

Tim:

Dad, yeah, you mentioned social governance. Also, the easier way for people to make the connection of what that is, it’s really a social justice thing. If you’re not on board with social justice issues, if you are not, supporting Disney and their indoctrination of your children, if you’re not in favor of the transgender movement, if you’re not the LGBTQIA, whatever other in the alphabet goes on with this, if you’re not part of that movement, then you are not where you need to be. It’s just a woke cultural, social justice thing.

So the social aspect of this is really social justice. And this is where, again, just like if you look at the environmental side, people will be able to measure on your social justice score. And if you’re not in favor of the transgender movement, if you’re not in favor of kindergarten kids or for elementary kids learning some of these things, then you’re not going to get a good social credit score.

Data Collection

And with that being said, some people are like, well, how are they going to know if I can or can’t? Because right now, all of these big tech organizations are in favor of this. And in fact, everyone who has a smartphone, the apps on your phone collect data of what you do and actually so many of the apps on your phone actually listen when you talk, they listen to your conversation. It’s why that sometimes people wonder how in the world did my phone know this targeted advertising.

I was just talking about something and they’re now showing me ads for what I was talking about. It’s literally because the apps on your phone, even when your phone is off, they can still listen, the microphone still works as long as your batteries in. And even if you remove your battery, there’s still enough life, enough a little bit of juice electricity charge in your phone, it can still last for a little bit longer.

Nonetheless, with all that being said, these big tech, big company, big organizations in the data collection sphere are collecting data on every single individual. So that for people that think well, I’ve never done that, no, they pretty much already know. Like, you don’t have to be an NRA member. They know where you stand largely in the Second Amendment. If you’ve never talked about it, if you’ve ever posted about it, if you ever send an email about it, what we’re saying is not conspiratorial, like this is the reality of the world.

We live in a data collection world. They’re collecting data on people and they’re now wanting to use it as kind of as a weapon to hold over people’s heads in this environmental, social justice is really the best way to think about that and understanding that and then in your governance, your compliance with the government. Are you a good little boy or little girl? In the midst of COVID lockdowns, did you wear your double mask? Did you get your vaccination?

Did you do all the things you were told to do? And if you didn’t, then you violated your governance, your obedience to the government. So they’re looking at your environmental scores, your social justice scores and your governance scores. That’s really what they’re looking at to measure who are the good little boys and good little girls. And the people who do the best, they get rewarded by the government. That’s the idea behind this.

Social Governance

David:

And also with governance, it’s also on the percentage of how your board looks. It’s what kind of quotas do you have? Rick, I look at your board at Patriot Academy, and it should be 17% Asian American, and it should be 18%, African American and it should be 14% whatever. And so they look at what you’re dealing with to see how diverse your board is, and that’s part of the governance factor.

Tim:

But that’s also on them telling you, you have to have this diversity on your board. So it’s not just they’re measuring you on how woke you are. They’re measuring you on how obedient you are to their commands. If they say that you have to have three transgender people and two homosexual people, and actually no heterosexual people, and you need at least 45% that are minority or whatever the case is, whatever arbitrary numbers or statistics they come up with, it’s how well do you comply to the orders they give you. That is the governance aspects.

Rick:

And Tim, of course, we’ve seen it in China, right? China’s done it. And other nations are beginning to do it. So like you said, this is not some conspiratorial thing and it’s not just China. There are people in America that want this to happen and are already putting things in motion to make it happen.

World Economic Forum

David:

All this stuff may sound conspiratorial because Americans are used to freedom. Not only was this on the World Economic Forum, but you can find this on treasury.gov and whitehouse.gov. So you can go to the White House site and find this. You go to the Treasury site, you’ll find it on the World Economic Forum. And this is what Obama committed us to.

When President Trump got in office, one of the first things he did was get us out of the Paris Climate Accords. Now, it’s interesting when Biden got in, I thought his first executive order would be to rescind the Mexico City Policy, because that’s always what Democrats do first, they want to be pro-abortion, Mexico City policies are prolife policy from Ronald Reagan. Biden actually reinstated the Paris Climate Accords before he did the abortion stuff. So this is super high on their agenda list. And they want to punish Americans and punish everyone else who doesn’t do that. And that’s what we saw Trudeau do up in Canada.

So Riley Moore is the treasurer from West Virginia. They’ve been working on this. 28 states now are trying to ban the use of ESG scores. And those 28 states are trying to provide liberty for people in those states. And so Riley Moore is one that’s been able to do that in West Virginia. Texas did the first law about 18 months ago. But there’s laws being worked on.

And folks, you need to tell your legislators that they need to get an anti-ESG law in your state because this is really controlling type stuff, and most people don’t know about it. Glenn Beck has done a book called ‘The Great Reset’, which goes through this in detail. If you haven’t read that, this will get you up to date on what’s going on around you that you’re not saying. But Riley Moore, great guy, a great leader in West Virginia, he’s been one of the national leaders in helping get this thing moving the right direction, opposing what they’re doing with ESG scores.

Rick:

Riley Moore, our special guests, stay with us, folks, we’ll be right back on WallBuilders Live.

AMERICAN HISTORY

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. After the final victory at Yorktown, the Continental Army awaited the outcome of peace negotiations with the Great Britain. Pastor Israel Evans, a chaplain in the army proposed to George Washington that they build a structure where church services could be held during the month of waiting. Washington approved the plan and urged officers to ensure that the soldiers attended service.

Pastor Evans further knew if we were to secure the liberties they had fought for, sound education would be crucial. He declared, “Every parent and every friend of the freedom of his country ought to be attentive to the improvement of our youth in the principles of freedom and good government; and then the people will stand fast in their liberty for a long time.” Our schools today need to return to teaching the principles of freedom and good government in order for America to survive and prosper.

For more information about Pastor Israel Evans and other colonial patriots, go to wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today. West Virginia State Treasurer is with us. Riley Moore. Riley, thanks for joining us, sir.

Welcome Treasurer Riley Moore

Riley:

Thank you so much for having me.

Rick:

Hey, I’m kind of excited to see the pushback from some of these states against corporations, woke boards and frankly, leadership and a lot of these corporations that are doing everything they can to jump on the climate change bandwagon and all these other things that actually end up hurting states like yours, West Virginia, and my state of Texas. And I’ve seen some good laws get passed and some policies from our Comptroller and others in Texas. Tell us what’s happening with you guys on this issue. It looks like you all are taking positive action as well?

Riley:

We are. And so earlier this year, I divested my office in West Virginia Treasury out of Blackrock, so we dropped BlackRock. We were the first state to do that in the country. And we then moved on to get legislation passed here just recently like Texas, that would allow us to list financial institutions that are boycotting the fossil fuel industry. And if they’re on that list, then they will be denied the ability to be able to compete for contracts with the state of West Virginia moving forward.

So if you’re boycotting fossil fuels, you’re not getting contract West Virginia. So we’re pretty excited to get that out. Those letters are going to come out soon to those various financial institutions and banks. And that list should be coming out shortly. So we’re excited to get moving and keep fighting.

Hardball

Rick:

This is the kind of hardball that frankly, the Left has played for decades and decades, that’s why they’ve been winning on so many issues. But our side has just refused to do. What do you think flip the switch? I mean, even for you to step up and do what you did, what motivated you and made you feel like, hey, this has got to be done?

Riley:

Oh, I mean, for West Virginia, this is an existential threat. Look, we’re an energy state, coal, gas and even oil. We went through this. You got to remember we went through this in the Obama administration when we had the war on coal, and they’re trying to crush us through regulation then and when we lost nearly direct and indirect coal mining jobs, 30,000 jobs. But now they’re spreading it out to everybody in the country.

And luckily, there’s a lot more people in for this fight and they see how evil these people are they destroyed lives and livelihood. Back in the Obama administration, now they’ve come back around, they don’t even want to just kill coal. They want to kill gas and oil. So I mean, we’re all kind of in this together. And so collaborators, and gas folks said:

Hey, look, we’re losing access to capital based on the businesses that were involved in producing coal and natural gas. Treasure, can you help us? And I said, absolutely, I’m going to do everything I can. And that’s when we started moving in this direction.

And this is what we have to do. It’s not about talking about this, writing letters, things like that. I mean, yes, those are good things to do to let them know your intention. But those intentions have to be backed up by action. If there’s no action, they’re just going to keep rolling us over.

Take Action

Rick:

Preach it, brother. I’m telling you, that’s exactly what it’s going to take. That’s the fight and spirit I’ve been looking for in everybody that I vote for that runs for office. It’s rare. It’s hard to find. So I think God for you, man. I mean, for people that are listening that may not understand how this impacts them.

I mean, just look at the price of the pump right now. Look at the electric bill. Look at all of the things in energy that are going through the roof because of these ridiculous policies, not based on science based on politics. It’s affecting everybody in the country. It’s not just states like West Virginia and Texas, right?

Riley:

That’s right. Look, baseload energy, the energy that powers your home, your refrigerator, your television, that comes from coal, gas, nuclear, those are three baseload energies really, and then oil to a smaller extent. But those are your three baseload energies. Wind and solar, I’m sorry, but this stuff is fake. Like, this is not real.

This cannot power a grid, right. So everyone has to understand, if you go look at Europe, when they rushed into green energy, guess what happened? Everyone’s utility bill went up in some countries where they moved into 20% renewables, your utility bill went up by 100%. You all are going to have to subsidize lunacy over here and their ideology that they’re trying to push down on to all of us. Oh, by the way, and they’re using your money, your retirement money to do that.

Rick:

Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s what so many people don’t get right now. You know, I’m all for freedom. I’m all for people being crazy if they want to be. Let California do stupid things if they want to. But let them pay for it, not me. Let the people that make the bad decisions live with the consequences of their decisions.

Energy

The problem with what’s happening with this agenda is they’re affecting all of us. Their bad policies and bad ideas are actually hitting average Americans at the pocketbook, and really, I mean, attempting, certainly in yours case with coal attempted to completely destroy an entire industry.

Riley:

That’s right. And look, we’re all going to end up paying for it because your power bill is going to go up. And guess what, we will not have the energy independence. We’re going to have to, just like Germany and these other countries ended up doing, import other sources of energy from foreign dictators in places that we don’t want to deal with.

Energy Security is American security. We need to be putting America first and we need to just unleash. We should be the superpower of fossil fuels of energy right here in the United States. We should be and we can be the superpower that. But these folks have a different vision of this country that we all have to continue to stand up and fight against.

Rick:

Man, Treasurer Moore, God bless you, man. I appreciate so much your wisdom and your ability to articulate these issues that frankly not many on our side are very good at. In fact, let me ask you this on the education side of things because I think that’s the only reason they have the political clout they do. The education system is pounded this drum since I was a kid, they started pushing these ridiculous environmental issues that aren’t even based on science. It’s all about politics and controlling other people’s land and controlling other people’s property.

The Education Side

Have you seen a shift there? I mean, because if we don’t change the education side, we’re going to keep churning out voters that tend to lean towards the left on these issues and by these lies. And I know, that’s not the position you’re in and all that. But I know you’re thinking about these things. So have you seen any shift there?

Riley:

Yeah, actually, it is something that I’m thinking about because a program which I supported, The Legislature Path, Educational Savings account here in West Virginia, so that’s something that we’re doing here. We just started that program up this year. B

ecause yes, it is getting pushed in through the school system and it becomes very hard to detach people from things that they learned while they’re growing up and as a child. And the Liberals know that, it’s indoctrination and it becomes very difficult to change their minds down the road on these types of issues.

Look, let me tell you, very simple we have a war going on here and it’s a war in our economy, our government and our culture. And right now, I think the Liberals are winning on all three. And we got to get off of our cans here and continue to stand up and fight.

Rick:

Couldn’t agree with you more, man. And I know you served in the legislature there before being treasurer. Is the West Virginia Legislature one that is awake enough to this, that’s wrong language as the other side likes to call themselves woke, but awake enough to this to continue to push back?

Legislation

You guys, I know you’ve already passed some good legislation. But I mean, I’m just looking for states to lead on this issue and step up. Do they have your back on the things you’re doing? Do you think that your state will continue to push on this?

Riley:

Oh, 100%. I mean, this bill that we passed has this huge overwhelming majorities. And I’ve actually been supported on both sides of the aisle on this issue because people understand how crazy this is and what this is going to do to our state and, frankly, our country. And we are definitely geared up to be able to I think even take more seats in the House and Senate here in these 2022 elections here in West Virginia. I think we’re going to turn out to be one of the most ‘Red’ states in the country as it comes to legislative control.

Rick:

I love it. I love it. Man, well, keep up the great work. And let’s hope it sets an example for other states. I think courage is contagious. And you guys are clearly showing courage in what you’re doing. And that’s what’s going to take to push back the left that’s trying to run our nation into the ground. So God bless you, keep up the great work. West Virginia and Texas leading the way, I love it.

Riley:

That’s right. I love it too. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

SUMMER INSTITUTE

Rick:

Appreciate it Treasurer Moore. Stay with us, folks. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Hey, guys, this is Tim Barton, I am interrupting the normal broadcast to bring you something pretty special. This summer, we are doing a special program for college aged students 18-25 year olds. And it’s something that is becoming more and more special based on where the climate is.

In the middle of a crazy culture, in the middle of a nation going in crazy directions and right now we’re seeing in academia where even Christian universities are promoting critical race theory, teaching the 1619 project, we want to do something to help equip young people the next generation, to know the truth, the truth of the Word of God, the truth of America, the truth of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the free market, we want to get into a lot of this.

And this is something that if you are an 18-25 year old, or if you are a parent or grandparent, if you have an 18 or 25 year old, if you’re in church 18-25 year olds, this program is something that can be life-changing for them, you want them to be a part. Go to wallbuilders.com and look for the summer institute to be part of this program.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. And thanks to Treasurer Riley Moore from West Virginia for joining us today. Back with David and Tim. David, you had mentioned at the top of the program that this has also been happening in Texas, some of our leaders have been pushing the same thing. Do we know if other states are beginning to do this? Or are we helping other states begin to learn about this?

BlackRock

David:

Yeah, we’re helping other states learn about it and they’re starting to push on it. I think we’ll see a whole lot of this next legislative session. This was kind of new for folks this year. And like most Americans, they didn’t know what ESG scores were and they couldn’t believe that we’re actually given our autonomy away to global stuff like the World Economic Forum. So we’re going to see more on it.

But Treasurer Riley pointed out some things I think are really significant. He talks about BlackRock. BlackRock, I think has about 30% of the world’s investments. And the President of Blackrock is absolutely committed to ESG type stuff. So they’re not wanting to fund people who don’t get on board with them. And it’s interesting that these 400 banks I talked about that have said:
H

ey, we’re going to adopt ESG, Treasurer Moore pointed out that the businesses that have adopted this ESG stuff, right now they’re performing about 25% lower than other businesses on the stock market on the standard, the S&P 500, etc. That means you’re really losing your money.

If you’re invested and you’re invested with companies like Blackrock that are taking your money and put it into ESG whether you know it or not, Tim and I just went through and made sure that all investments we have anything to do with have no ESG companies in them. We don’t want to be funding those guys to punish us.

But it’s interesting those companies are making less money than other companies are right now and they’re willing to do that. Just like Biden’s willing to have inflation, if he can get us off of fossil fuels and save the world, he’s going to do that. And that’s the way some of these companies are on investments too.

Unfortunatly…

Yeah, unfortunately, Joe Biden’s going to make everybody else feel the pain of trying to do this not himself. You know one of these altruistic liberals, right, I’ll spend your money to make myself feel good about helping people, or in this case, I’ll make everybody pay a heavy price at the pump to try to move to a green energy policy. But that’s how liberals do it. It makes them feel really good. Doesn’t feels so good for the rest of us, but it makes them feel great.

Tim:

Dad, as you mentioned, even one of the leaders of Blackrock within having this really woke idea of ESG, it was Blackrock that actually went to Exxon and they encourage Exxon to actually do less oil production, to do less fossil fuels. They said, you need to stop doing so much, you need to do more green energy. And so even as Rick, you mentioned, we’re seeing these price at the pump increase, the Blackrock was with President Biden in this notion of we need to do less fossil fuels, less oil; we have to get off of this energy and change it.

What You Need To Know About ESG And What To Do – With Treasurer Riley Moore

And as we’re saying this, as we tell people often, this is something that don’t take our word for this stuff. Go look it up. Dad, you mentioned, Glenn Beck’s book, ‘The Great Reset’ where he has a hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of footnotes in there, where as he’s walking you through how this came to be and what’s going on with World Economic Forum and these different leaders that are involved, even President Biden, he has put notes for all of these things. It’s very well documented.

It’s just not very well reported on. So this is something people definitely need to do their research on and kind of see what’s coming because this is certainly a dangerous thing for the nation. Fortunately, there are good people out there like Treasurer Moore who’s fighting against this and we’re going to continue to pray for Treasurer Moore and ask God to raise up more leaders around the nation just like him.

Rick:

Alright, friends, cutting it close right here at the end, want to encourage you to visit the website wallbuilderslive.com. We’re out of time for today. Be sure to tune in weekly, Monday through Friday for all kinds of great interviews like today’s interview and then of course, Foundations of Freedom Thursdays, chance for you to ask questions and for us to dive into those principles. And then Good News Fridays, I don’t know about you. I love Good News Fridays. I need that pick me up. I need to know that there are good answers that can still work in our culture and that’s what Good News Fridays prove every single week.

Thanks so much for listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.

Sie sollten Kanmagra Tabletten nur auf Empfehlung eines Arztes einnehmen. Wenn Sie andere Medikamente einnehmen, stellen Sie sicher, dass sie die Potenz nicht beeinflussen. Wenn Sie mit Kamagra andere Arzneimittel einnehmen, kann seine Wirkung abwesend sein