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WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, today joined Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) and more than 15 other senators in urging Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler to withdraw a proposed rule that would require publicly-traded companies to disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other information related to climate change.

“The SEC is not tasked with environmental regulation, nor has Congress amended the SEC’s regulatory authority to pursue the proposed climate disclosures. Further, there are serious questions about whether the SEC has the technical expertise to assess climate models and underlying assumptions used in companies’ metrics and disclosures. Without such technical expertise, the SEC will likely review submissions arbitrarily, leading to uneven or unfair application,” the senators wrote.

“After failed attempts to enact radical climate policy via legislation, this rule is yet another example of the Biden Administration’s efforts to have unelected bureaucrats implement its preferred agenda through regulation. To make matters worse, the SEC is limiting the public’s input on this proposed rule by restricting the comment period to only 60 days, which is insufficient for such an enormously complex and consequential rule,” they continued.

The senators point out that the SEC’s proposed rule would impose billions of dollars in new compliance costs on public companies, harm investors who would face reduced shareholder returns and discourage companies from going public.

“This anti-energy rhetoric and policy coming from the Biden Administration is having a chilling effect on markets and long-term investments, starving the American oil, gas, and mining industries of access to the credit and capital they need to grow production while reducing their GHG emissions. This proposed rule will only further allocate capital away from domestic fossil fuel producers, increase the costs of energy for everyday Americans, and transfer investment to dirtier sources of energy overseas,” concluded the senators.

The letter is also directed to SEC Commissioners Hester M. Peirce, Allison Herren Lee and Caroline A. Crenshaw.

The letter is available here.