June 26, 2024 |
Photo – SEC logo – Courtesy sec.gov
In Washington, D.C., the Wyoming Congressional Delegation is pushing back against a climate change rule released earlier this year by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
Since 1934 and the Great Depression, the SEC has followed a mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and competitive markets and facilitating capital formation. Under the Joe Biden Administration, SEC veered into radical environmentalism this year.
On March 6, 2024, the SEC finalized a rule mandating climate-related disclosures from publicly traded companies. The new Climate Rule mandates that public companies must report on whether they have implemented corporate policies to prioritize climate change concerns within the company.
The SEC claims the Climate Rule is necessary for investors who care about climate-change issues.
The Texas Alliance of Energy Producers sued the SEC, and requested the court vacate the federal agency’s radical climate rule.
Wyoming’s congressional delegation supports the lawsuit saying the climate rule will be disastrous for energy producers in the Cowboy State who would face a mountain of red tape to meet these “unrealistic disclosure requirements.”
Economic growth will also be stymied by the rule.
The court brief reads, “The SEC, as a securities regulator, is not empowered to impose sweeping climate-related regulations on publicly traded companies. It continues, “The SEC’s overreach into climate regulation violates the separation of powers and the major questions doctrine, warranting the rule’s invalidation.”
The lawsuit by Texas challenges what the state characterizes as the SEC’s “illegal rule making.” Requiring companies to disclose all the ways they think and talk about climate change within their walls is beyond the SEC’s mission of protecting investors from fraud, the lawsuit contends.
The new Biden Administration rule also will lead to higher costs in gasoline for your car as the overhead costs for petroleum companies increase.
Under the new rule, the SEC mandates that companies must tell the world whether they have institutionalized climate change risk management strategies or admit that they are not making climate change a priority concern—regardless of whether there is any reason to believe that climate change risks pose any actual material risk to investors.
The SEC claims the Climate Rule is necessary for investors who care about climate-change issues.
The Texas Alliance Energy Producers contend that the disclosure requirements serve no investment purposes. Instead, the agency created the rule as a weapon to publicly shame companies that don’t step into line with the Biden Administration’s approach to climate change.
The producers, as well as Wyoming’s congressional delegation, contend that the SEC’s rulemaking is unlawful.
