Charleston Leader

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, recently joined 34 Members of Congress in filing a bicameral amicus brief in Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, et al v. SEC requesting the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacate the agency’s climate disclosure rule. U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) led the effort in the Senate, while Congressman Kevin Hern (R-Okla.-01) led the effort in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The brief states, “The SEC, as a securities regulator, is not empowered to impose sweeping climate-related regulations on publicly traded companies. Congress has demonstrated historical reluctance to pass broad climate legislation, particularly legislation that would dramatically impact federal securities law disclosure requirements. The SEC’s overreach into climate regulation violates the separation of powers and the major questions doctrine, warranting the rule’s invalidation.”

The brief continues, “Further highlighting the absence of authorization for the SEC’s Climate Rule is its conflict with fundamental tenets of federal securities law that have existed for decades. Specifically, the Climate Rule contravenes the principle of materiality, a cornerstone of federal securities law. […] The SEC’s historical stance and the Supreme Court’s interpretation affirm that immaterial information should not be subject to mandatory disclosure. By focusing on environmental impacts rather than financial materiality, the Climate Rule deviates from the SEC’s statutory mandate. Consequently, the Climate Rule’s disclosure requirements conflict with established federal securities law precepts and should be vacated.”

Full text of the amicus brief can be found here.

BACKGROUND:

Under Chair Gensler, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pursued one of the most aggressive regulatory agendas in the agency’s history – with the agency on track to propose and finalize over 60 rules with limited public comment periods and inadequate cost-benefit analyses.

Senator Capito has continued to push back against this politically driven agenda since the rule was proposed in 2022. The proposed rule on climate-related disclosures for publicly traded companies would require them to disclose greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other climate change-related information ungermane to the SEC’s Congressional mandate.

In April 2022, Senator Capito helped lead a letter to Chair Gensler soon after the proposed rule was announced urging the SEC to withdraw the rule completely and highlighting Scope 3 emission requirements.

In January of this year, Senator Capito sent another letter to Chair Gensler to withdraw the rule.

Additionally, in April of this year, Senator Capito joined a bipartisan group of 33 Senate colleagues to introduce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to overturn the SEC’s radical climate disclosure rule.

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