WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, and U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) sent a letter to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler regarding the Commission’s proposed rule on climate-related disclosures for publicly traded companies that would require them to disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other climate change-related information.

In the letter, the senators state the proposed rule pushes the Biden administration’s anti-American energy rhetoric, arguing the adoption of this rule hinders domestic energy producers’ access to capital and fuels even higher energy prices.

“Congress did not change the SEC’s regulatory authority, and in fact, the Environmental Protection Agency is the federal agency charged with air emissions reporting and regulation. This begs the question of where the SEC’s presumptive and duplicative jurisdiction comes from. Moreover, required reporting of estimated Scope 3 emissions results in substantial over counting of emissions upstream and downstream in supply chains,” the senators wrote. 

“In addition to the SEC’s lack of authority, current securities regulations already mandate companies divulge significant risks in their annual and periodic reports. Numerous companies already voluntarily share extensive details about their sustainability practices to comply with the Supreme Court’s materiality principles,” the senators continued.

“Since our initial letter nearly two years ago, the SEC has left the business community in regulatory limbo. Recent public reporting of your comments has stated: ‘it appears the SEC is delaying the final rule while they try to find a legal workaround to include Scope 3.’ Rather than performing legal gymnastics and subjecting the American economy to further uncertainty, we reiterate our request for the SEC to not adopt a final rule,” the senators concluded.

To read the full letter, click here.

BACKGROUND:

In April of 2022, Senators Capito and Cramer led their colleagues on the Senate EPW and Banking Committees in a previous letter to the SEC, expressing their opposition to the draft rule and requested the Commission abandon its adoption.

# # #