Reworked SEC climate rule fails to assuage Hill critics - E&E News by POLITICO
Reworked SEC climate rule fails to assuage Hill critics - E&E News by POLITICO
The Security and Exchange Commission’s decision Wednesday to dilute a long-awaited rule to compel major companies to disclose their carbon emissions ultimately did little to neutralize the political response on Capitol Hill.
As lawmakers learned the details of the SEC’s so-called climate disclosure rule, their reactions signaled just how politicized environmental policies have truly become — and how dug in members remain in their positions.
“The SEC was bullied by corporate interests, specifically by fossil fuel interests,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who has used his leadership of the Senate Budget Committee to connect special interests to the perpetuation of global warming.
“The SEC made a mistake allowing itself to be influenced by [them] … and the administration made a mistake by not taking [them] on and not calling it out from the get-go.”
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More than 30 years after the last major update of the Clean Air Act, the U.S. Supreme Court has upended the ability of Congress to give the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies broad scope to combat air pollution, including the emission of greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, further Biden administration efforts to limit emissions face opposition in the courts.