Recently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized a hotly-contested and controversial rule it had issued two years ago. While a scaled back version of the original, it is still an overreach from an agency whose main mission is “protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation.”
Initially, the SEC wanted all public companies to disclose their direct emissions, classified as Scopes 1 and 2, as well as report emissions from their supply chains and the use of their products, known as Scope 3. The final rule dropped Scope 3, on account of massive blowback, but it left in most of what entailed Scopes 1 and 2, requiring corporations report on what they believe is material, or in other words, significant direct emissions.
The rule may have been diluted with the removal of Scope 3 provisions, but it still faces legal challenges and poses potential problems.
At least ten Republican-led states are suing to dispute the new rule, questioning its constitutionality and whether such regulations lie outside the SEC’s purview. The lawsuit was filed in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals only hours after the final rule was made official.
Read the full Real Clear Energy article here.
Kristen Walker is a policy analyst for the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit education and research organization. For more information about the Institute, visit www.theamericanconsumer.org or follow us on Twitter @ConsumerPal