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It did not take long for several Senators to come out in opposition to the SEC’s climate change rule proposal. Senator Joe Manchin, perhaps not surprisingly, sent a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler criticizing the proposed rules as unduly burdensome.

In his letter, Senator Manchin states:

I firmly believe that the SEC has a duty and responsibility to every American to uphold their mission and prevent an unraveling of our U.S. economy; however, that duty and responsibility unfortunately becomes tainted when the Commission publishes rules that seemingly politicize a process aimed at assessing the financial health and compliance of a public company. As the SEC collects public comment on this rule, I urge both you and your fellow Commissioners to reassess the structure and need for these additional disclosures and to consider alternative reporting requirements, particularly for those that are already required to disclose emissions and climate risk data to other agencies. For instance, as you aware, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) collects such information from fossil fuel companies through its Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) and shares its public reports in October of each year. Enacting rules that are seemingly duplicative in nature–particularly for our nation’s energy companies– may add additional burdens that are both timely and costly for publicly traded companies and may also serve to create unnecessary confusion for investors. Ultimately, I am interested in the implementation of rules that are rational and ensure that the system is fair. Reassessing the responsibilities of our nation’s energy companies within these disclosures is a critical component to reaching that fairness.

A group of Senate Republicans also sent a letter to Chair Gensler, requesting that the SEC withdraw the proposal, indicating that the SEC was overstepping its authority to seek climate change disclosure. The letter concludes with the statement: “We believe devising climate policy is the job of elected lawmakers, not unelected regulators at the SEC.”

– Dave Lynn