Republicans grill SEC nominee on climate disclosure - E&E News by POLITICO
Republicans grill SEC nominee on climate disclosure - E&E News by POLITICO
Republican senators slammed one of President Joe Biden’s key financial nominees Thursday over her advocacy for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s embattled climate disclosure rule.
Biden in June renominated SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw to serve as one of the agency’s five top officials for another five years.
Crenshaw has distinguished herself as a key proponent of one of the agency’s most controversial efforts: a long-awaited rule to require public companies to disclose information about their climate risks, goals and planet-warming emissions.
Most notable has been her insistence that the rule should have required companies to report emissions from their customers and suppliers. The final rule, which was significantly weaker than the proposed version, is currently on hold amid litigation.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”