TheCorporateCounsel.net

The rumors panned out. Yesterday, the SEC posted the Sunshine Notice for an open meeting to be held next Wednesday, March 6th at 9:45am ET. Climate is one of the two agenda items:

The Commission will consider whether to adopt rules to require registrants to provide certain climate-related information in their registration statements and annual reports.

The timing of next week’s meeting allows the SEC to dodge the risk of a government shutdown (just in case the latest deal doesn’t go through). It likely also helps avoid the specter of a new Administration unraveling the rule under the Congressional Review Act. This blog from Hunton Andrews Kurth says that agency rules will be at risk if they are published in the Federal Register after May 22nd this year. Typically it takes about 30 days for rules to show up in the Federal Register, so that will probably not be an issue here. All that said, we will almost certainly see litigation that challenges the new requirements, assuming they are adopted.

I expect a final rule to be adopted in some form next week, although we may see 1 or 2 Commissioners dissent from the decision. What’s unknown is how exactly the record number of comments to the proposal have been considered and reflected in the final rule. The meeting will be webcast on the SEC’s website if you want to watch the drama unfold in real time.

– Liz Dunshee