SEC Climate Rule Demanded by Foreign Investors Will Suppress US Energy

• Climate disclosure rule to reduce oil and natural gas production, says Western Energy Alliance
• Agency’s timing could not be worse for American consumers hit with record-high prices
• SEC justifies rule by citing foreign investors and climate activists. 

DENVER – Western Energy Alliance today submitted public comments to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding the proposed climate change disclosure rule designed to deny oil and natural gas companies access to capital and credit. The trade group detailed the agency’s lack of statutory authority, expansion of mission from protecting investors to regulating greenhouse gas emissions, and intent to increase the cost of energy.

“Average gasoline prices exceed $5 per gallon and Pres. Biden is lobbying Saudi Arabia for more oil. Meanwhile, SEC is pushing regulations that double down on restricting domestic production and keeping energy prices high well into the future. The U.S. economy needs relief, not more government red tape to tie up oil and natural gas production,” said Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Alliance. “SEC is a financial not an environmental regulator, yet the commission is trying to address climate change as an end-run around Congress. Advocates for these regulations claim there’s already a consensus on climate change disclosure, but the investors SEC cites are overwhelmingly foreign. SEC is skating on very thin ice when it uses foreign companies and activists to justify a regulation that would impose well over $10 billion in costs on American society.
 
“We strongly believe SEC should not finalize this rule, especially in light of the high energy prices that stem from the Biden Administration’s climate change policies,” Sgamma added. “The detrimental effects of these policies on inflation should cause the administration to reverse course on attempts to deny the oil and natural gas industry access to capital and otherwise suppress American production. Discovering an unheralded power to bring about a transition to a net-zero economy through financial disclosure is a gross overreach of power. SEC should stick to protecting investors and encouraging capital formation and economic growth.”
 
For more information, please see the Alliance’s letter to SEC.
 
Background:

• SEC’s proposed rule cites extensively to global activist organizations pushing climate change disclosure. According to an analysis by the Alliance, of the climate groups cited in the rule, only 19 percent are American and 53 percent European.

 

• Diving into the numbers, the 1,124 American asset management companies participating in the climate change disclosure advocacy cited by SEC represent a mere 7 percent of the 16,127 registered investment companies in the United States.

​

• Several global climate initiatives that SEC cites are funded by the alleged Russian front group Sea Change Foundation. Sea Change was prominently featured in a March 31, 2022 letter from 20 members of Congress requesting a hearing, “on the coordinated attempts by Russian entities to buy influence and finance U.S. environmental non-governmental organizations (NGO) in an effort to reduce the energy security of the United States.”

# # #