On June 24, 2024, the NAM filed an amicus brief urging the 8th Circuit to vacate the SEC’s final climate disclosure rule. Back in March, the SEC voted to approve the final rule instituting new climate disclosure requirements on public companies. As requested by the NAM, the final rule omitted the onerous and unworkable Scope 3 supply chain emissions reporting mandate the SEC included in its original proposal. Although the final rule is significantly more workable for manufacturers than the proposal, questions remain about the SEC’s authority to adopt it in the first place. In this case, several groups sued challenging the final rule as exceeding the SEC’s authority and those cases were consolidated in the 8th Circuit.
We argue in our amicus brief that even though the SEC has authority to require a public company to disclose information that would be material to a reasonable investor and climate information can be material, provisions of the rule suggest the SEC is prescribing climate policy. The EPA, not the SEC, has authority to make climate policy.