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Well, that didn’t take long. As reported by The Hill, within hours of adoption — while thousands of lawyers, accountants and sustainability professionals were just starting to read the 886 pages of the release — ten Republican-led states filed a petition for review in the 11th Circuit. The petition states that “the final rule exceeds the agency’s statutory authority and otherwise is arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and not in accordance with law” and asks the 11th Circuit to declare the rule “unlawful and vacate the Commission’s final action.”

During the open meeting, Commissioner Lizárraga noted in his supporting statement, “With the broad interest this rulemaking has received, inevitably, some will view it as having gone too far, while others will see it as not having gone far enough.” That may have been prescient. The Hill gives the perspectives of two environmental groups and notes that legal challenges may come from both sides of the aisle:

The influential environmental groups Sierra Club and Earthjustice also announced they are weighing their own legal challenge to the SEC’s “arbitrary removal” of the so-called “Scope 3” provisions that would have required disclosure of emissions from a company’s supply chain and the use of its products.

– Meredith Ervine