March 18, 2024
SEC Climate Disclosure Rules Stayed!
As we have chronicled in this blog and on PracticalESG.com, a number of lawsuits seeking to challenge the SEC’s climate disclosure rules have been filed in the week and half since the SEC adopted the rules on March 6. To date, litigation challenging the rules has been filed in four federal courts of appeals, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Sixth, Eight and Eleventh Circuits. There is no doubt that additional lawsuits will continue to be filed.
In the Fifth Circuit, the petitioners Liberty Energy Inc. and Nomad Proppant Services LLC filed a motion seeking an administrative stay and stay pending judicial review. The petitioners indicated that they would be “irreparably harmed” by the failure to grant a stay because the disclosures that will be first required in 2026 must include data collected in 2025 and companies are implementing systems to prepare the required disclosure. The SEC opposed this motion, but on Friday, March 15, the three judge panel in the Fifth Circuit granted the petitioners’ motion and imposed a temporary stay.
Given that litigation is pending in multiple courts of appeals, ultimately the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will consolidate the challenges in a single court of appeals and that court will ultimately determine whether the Fifth Circuit stay will remain in place.
For more details on these developments, be sure to check out our coverage on PracticalESG.com. If you’re not yet a member of PracticalESG.com, subscribe online, email sales@ccrcorp.com or call 800.737.1271.
– Dave Lynn