SEC stays own climate disclosure rule, pending legal challenge

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday confirmed it would not implement an embattled climate disclosure rule that would require companies to disclose environmental risks.

The rule has faced a bevy of lawsuits from natural gas companies and Republican-led states since the agency formally adopted the plan in March. Later that month, oil and gas firms Liberty Energy and Nomad Proppant Services scored a stay of the rule from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

A challenge in the 8th Circuit from nine Republican attorneys general, moreover, has taken aim at the agency's authority to impose the rule at all. A total of 25 Republican AGs are involved in the myriad challenges, according to The Hill.

"The Commission has determined to exercise its discretion to stay the Final Rules pending the completion of judicial review of the consolidated Eighth Circuit petitions," the agency stated. "[The] Commission will continue vigorously defending the Final Rules’ validity in court and looks forward to expeditious resolution of the litigation."

The rule has also attracted scrutiny from left-wing environmental groups, who have contended that it does not require the disclosure of critical information and ought to go further.

"We are saying not only does the SEC have the authority to require these types of disclosures, in fact they made a mistake by dropping some very crucial disclosure requirements that were in the proposal — and a mistake that just is fundamentally wrong," Earthjustice senior attorney Hana Vizcarra said last month.

A group of Democratic attorneys general, however, have asked to intervene in the challenge from the Republicans on behalf of the SEC.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.