States join legal fray over landmark SEC climate rule - E&E News by POLITICO
States join legal fray over landmark SEC climate rule - E&E News by POLITICO
One of the Biden administration’s leading legal foes is taking Wall Street’s top regulator to court over a divisive regulation that requires companies to disclose climate-related risk.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R), whose office has sued over many Biden-era rules on the environment and other key issues, said the administration is “twisting the boundaries” of the Securities and Exchange Commission to take on climate activism, rather than keeping the agency focused on the financial issues it was designed to address.
“The Biden Administration’s ill-advised war on hard-working Americans continues,” Murrill said in a Friday statement. “Not only do these disclosure requirements fall outside of the Commission’s authority and violate the First Amendment, but they also drive up business costs, which will then be passed on to the consumers.”
Murrill, joined by the state attorneys for Mississippi and Texas, filed suit in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, following a separate challenge launched by West Virginia and nine other Republican-led states this week in a different federal appeals court.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation
The federal government and states are in the process of implementing two laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — an investment of more than a trillion dollars to address climate change.