Yeah, the minute the SEC passed the rule lawsuits were filed. I hope the lawyers are planning on asking the 3 Democrats on the SEC who voted for the rule if they are driving EVs, not taking fossil fueled flights, and living in tiny homes
Court Temporarily Halts S.E.C.’s New Climate Rules
A federal court on Friday temporarily halted new rules from the Securities Exchange Commission that require public companies to disclose more about the business risks they face from climate change, siding with two oil and gas companies that criticized the requirements as costly and arbitrary.
Approved by the S.E.C. this month, the rules require some publicly traded companies to disclose their climate risks, and how much greenhouse gas emissions they produce. Industry groups, as well as their political allies, have filed numerous lawsuits challenging the regulation.
It pretty much applies to most public companies that are regulated by the SEC, which is mostly companies with more than $10 million in assets whose securities are held by more than 500 owners. Supposedly it’s just the biggest of the big companies, which would seem to be targeted and not equal application of the law.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents a wide cross-section of industries, filed suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit this week to stop the rules, calling them unconstitutional. Ten Republican-led states have also sued to stop the rules.
The emergency stay granted by Fifth Circuit judges on Friday came in a case brought by two fracking companies, Liberty Energy and Nomad Proppant Services. “There is no clear authority for the S.E.C. to effectively regulate the controversial issue of climate change,” the two companies wrote in their petition. They were “arbitrary and capricious,” the two companies said, and violated the First Amendment, which protects free speech, by “effectively mandating discussions about climate change.”
In addition, the rules would cost companies “irreparable injury in the form of unrecoverable compliance costs,” they said.
Well, we’ll have to see what happens.
Environmental groups have also challenged the rules, saying the S.E.C. didn’t go far enough in protecting investors.
“As climate impacts like wildfires, floods, and drought disrupt every facet of the U.S. economy, the S.E.C. chose to bury its head in the sand instead of requiring companies to show the full climate risks they pose,” said Hana Vizcarra, an attorney at Earthjustice, which along with the Sierra Club and other environmental groups have also sued the S.E.C.
It’s easy to say for them, since they really do not have a stake in the regulated companies. The SEC should apply the rules to organizations like the Sierra Clumb and EarthJustice. It’s super easy to force others to do things you aren’t required to do.
Read: Federal Court Halts Silly SEC Climate Cult Rule For Time Being »