Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen has joined 17 other state attorneys general in requesting the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) allow public input regarding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing.
The state attorneys general are also requesting the public be allowed to provide feedback on disclosures regarding emissions from businesses’ entire supply chain in the wake of an SEC announcement the agency lost public comments.
“The undersigned 18 Attorneys General call on the Commission to extend the reopened comment periods for a minimum of 60 days for all rulemaking releases affected by the technological error in the Commission’s internet comment form,” the attorneys general wrote in correspondence to SEC Secretary Vanessa A. Countryman. “Many of our states submitted comments on two of the affected rules: Enhanced Disclosures by Certain Investment Advisers and Investment Companies about Environmental, Social, and Governance Investment Practices, Release Nos. 33-11068, 34-94985, IA-6034, IC-34594 (June 17, 2022); and The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors, Release Nos. 33-11042, 34-94478 (Apr. 11, 2022).”
The state attorneys general maintain the public needs additional time to comment on the rules.
“That’s especially true with the two climate-related rules, which seek to usher in a market transformation,” the state attorneys general concluded. “Those proposed rules—in effect if not in form—seek to reorder public companies’ priorities from maximizing shareholder returns to improving climate reputation. To achieve these goals, the Commission’s proposed rules—which sweep far beyond its traditional area of expertise or statutory authority—would compel public companies to gather, create, and disclose a crushing amount of information. The SEC should extend the timeframe for public comment in a meaningful—not perfunctory—way to ensure that all interested parties have the opportunity to comment on these rules.”