{"id":25738,"date":"2024-04-06T03:50:20","date_gmt":"2024-04-06T08:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=25738"},"modified":"2024-04-06T03:50:25","modified_gmt":"2024-04-06T08:50:25","slug":"amid-legal-challenges-sec-pauses-its-climate-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=25738","title":{"rendered":"Amid legal challenges, SEC pauses its climate rule"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is pausing the implementation of its new climate disclosure rule<\/a> while it defends the regulation in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wall Street\u2019s top regulator voted in March on the final rule, which requires some public companies in the U.S. to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. The measure faced legal challenges<\/a> almost immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SEC said Thursday it had stayed the rule in part to avoid regulatory uncertainty for companies that might have been subject to the rule while litigation against it proceeds. The rule is pending review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rule adopted in early March was watered down from what the nation\u2019s top financial regulator had proposed two years ago, after it faced lobbying and criticism from business and trade groups and Republican-led states that argued the SEC had overstepped its mandate. But that didn\u2019t stave off lawsuits. After the final rule was approved, environmental groups including the Sierra Club also sued, saying the SEC\u2019s weakened rule did not go far enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SEC said it would continue \u201cvigorously defending\u201d the validity of its climate rule and believes that it had acted within its authority to require disclosures important to investors. A stay would \u201callow the court of appeals to focus on deciding the merits,\u201d the SEC said in a statement.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Michael Littenberg, an attorney with Ropes & Gray and the head of the firm\u2019s environmental, social and governance or ESG division, said the stay was unlikely to be a factor in the ultimate fate of the SEC\u2019s regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while some companies may delay efforts to comply with the SEC\u2019s measure, \u201cit\u2019s not pencils down on climate disclosure more generally,\u201d Littenberg said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies are already collecting data and climate-related information to comply with similar rules in other jurisdictions, such as California and the European Union, which recently moved ahead with their own disclosure requirements. California\u2019s rule has also been challenged in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon Solorzano, an attorney with Vinson & Elkins who advises companies on ESG topics, said the uncertainty surrounding the SEC\u2019s rule presents more challenges for smaller companies than large ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where it gets tricky because they don\u2019t have unlimited resources,\u201d Solorzano said. \u201cThis is at a genuine cost to their business … how much they should be investing in something that may or may not come to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to reporting greenhouse gas emissions, the SEC rule requires U.S.-listed companies to publicly report their climate-related risks<\/a> and information about their plans to transition to a low-carbon economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency dropped a requirement that would have had companies report some indirect emissions known as Scope 3. Those don\u2019t come from a company or its operations, but happen along its supply chain \u2014 for example, in the production of the fabrics that make a retailer\u2019s clothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SEC\u2019s reporting requirements would not have taken effect until 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

apnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is pausing the implementation of its new climate disclosure rule while it defends the regulation in court. Wall Street\u2019s top regulator voted in March on the final rule, which requires some public companies in the U.S. to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks. The measure faced legal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25739,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[27685,27686,2539],"class_list":["post-25738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-legal-challenges","tag-moratorium","tag-sec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25740,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25738\/revisions\/25740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}