WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, issued the following statement after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) finalized a climate disclosure rule, which would require publicly traded companies to categorize and disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data.
“The SEC’s final climate disclosure rule is the definition of federal overreach. Congress didn’t give the SEC any authority for this mandate, nor is the Commission an environmental regulator. Not only is this outside their legal bounds, forcing publicly traded companies to report their emissions data opens them up to new liabilities while giving a competitive edge to dirtier foreign producers who have no such burdensome requirements.”
Existing security regulations mandate publicly traded companies to annually and periodically disclose material risks and its financial impact. Many companies already share extensive information on sustainability practices. Requiring the disclosure of non-material information runs afoul of the First Amendment prohibition against compelled speech, and public companies could face billions in new compliance costs to meet the new requirements.
This rule will drastically impact markets and long-term investments and starve domestic energy producers of access to the credit and capital needed to grow production in the United States instead of relying on dirtier sources of energy overseas. North Dakota is a leader in clean energy solutions to create a dependable energy source for today and the future, but once again unelected bureaucrats have chosen regulation over innovation.
In April 2022, Senator Cramer led his Republican colleagues on the Senate Banking and Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committees in a letter calling on the SEC to withdraw the proposed rule. In January, he and U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) wrote a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler highlighting their disapproval of the rule and its mission to hinder domestic energy producers’ access to capital and fuel even higher energy prices.
