Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) joined fellow Senate Banking Committee members on a letter urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler and Commissioner Allison Herren Lee to reject any proposal to implement new global warming disclosures.
“We do not believe that any further securities regulations to specifically address global warming are necessary or appropriate, and will only serve to further discourage firms from becoming publicly traded, thus denying significant investment opportunities to retail investors,” wrote the senators.
The senators argued Commissioner Lee’s recent push for more disclosure on climate change has little to do with providing material information for investment purposes and is instead an attempt to appease third-party stakeholders—including asset managers—at the expense of a company’s shareholders. The senators also warned against trying to use a third-party standard setter in order to avoid compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act and the SEC’s commitment to conduct a robust cost-benefit analysis of new regulations.
“Determining how to address global warming is a difficult process that involves weighing costs and benefits, making tradeoffs, and negotiating to reach political consensus. If our laws are inadequate to deal with climate change, then it is job of members of Congress—who are accountable to the voters through elections—to address them and not the SEC,” concluded the senators.
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