“Green New Deal Mandates” Are Being Imposed By The SEC Through Excess Regulation

It was reported recently by Newsmax that Republican lawmakers are blasting the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and urging it to withdraw a regulatory proposal requiring companies to disclose climate-related risks.

House Republicans have sent a letter to the financial regulator and its Democrat-majority, saying it exceeded its congressional authority in issuing the proposal, according to the Daily Caller.

“The SEC should immediately terminate this thinly-veiled attempt to impose Green New Deal mandates onto private sector job creators,” Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C., said.

Budd is a member of the House Financial Services Committee and one of 40 lawmakers who signed the letter, the news outlet noted.

“The SEC’s proposed climate rule is bad for business, bad for investors, and is nothing more than climate activism cloaked in additional red tape,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C.

“It’s time for the Left to stop trying to shame companies into combating climate change.

“I’ll tell you how we effectively combat climate change: We utilize an all-of-the-above energy strategy that reduces costs, eliminates dependence on imports from foreign nations, and paves the way for the transition to renewables,” he added.

“More regulations on private citizens and businesses is not, and never will be, the answer.”

The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement that the proposed rule changes “would require registrants to include certain climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports, including information about climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition, and certain climate-related financial statement metrics in a note to their audited financial statements.

The required information about climate-related risks also would include disclosure of a registrant’s greenhouse gas emissions, which have become a commonly used metric to assess a registrant’s exposure to such risks.”

But the Republicans, led by Norman, said in their letter: “The SEC should not and cannot mandate such public disclosures of information that strays from the ‘core purpose of disclosure, [which] is to provide investors with the information they need to make informed investment and voting decisions,’ which ‘allow[s] our capital markets to flourish.’

“At a time of global turmoil, when energy prices are at decade highs, how would this rule be beneficial to American citizens?” the letter continued.

“Simply wrapping climate activism in financial regulation will only further exacerbate our current energy crisis and do nothing to help everyday Americans heat or cool their homes or lower prices at the gas pump.”