U.S. Senators Ask SEC To Reconsider Costly Disclosure Rule

As Connecting the Dots reported last week, a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) climate-rule would impose significant burdens on the manufacturing and industrial metals industry. At least two U.S. senators agree with that position.

Last week, Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) sent a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler asking that the commission abandon the so-called “Scope 3” emissions reporting requirement from its forthcoming final environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure rule, which would require public companies to make certain disclosures about the carbon impact of companies in their supply chain.

The two senators said the provision “could indirectly penalize small agriculture producers for doing business with publicly-traded companies,” and argued, “ the SEC must balance holding public companies accountable to their claims or commitments to shareholders on climate issues while also ensuring that the rule isn’t creating significant new compliance costs for American small businesses.” They asked Chair Gensler to remove the provision from the final rule if “it is not possible to develop Scope 3 in a way that does not burden small businesses in a public company’s supply chain.”

Read the full letter here. The SEC is expected to release its final ESG disclosure rule in the coming weeks. Stay tuned to Connecting the Dots as this regulation moves forward.