Bloomberg Law
"California on Thursday pressed a court to save the SEC’s corporate emissions reporting regulations, as it fights a separate lawsuit challenging its own climate disclosure requirements for companies.
Democrat Rob Bonta of California was the last attorney general from 46 states to formally weigh in on nine lawsuits challenging the Securities and Exchange Commission’s March regulations that require companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and make other climate disclosures.
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina and Maine, which all have Democratic attorneys general, were the only states not to submit a friend-of-the-court brief or intervene in the litigation in the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; every state with a Republican attorney general is participating.
The widespread involvement of the attorneys general shows how partisan climate-risk disclosures have become, as leading figures from both major political parties spar over environmental, social and governance issues. The agency, under Democratic Chair Gary Gensler, paused the rules amid the litigation in April.
Bonta led a group of 20 Democratic attorneys general who urged the SEC to adopt climate disclosure rules in a 2022 letter, after he spearheaded a similar effort in 2021. The calls came before California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed two corporate emissions reporting laws late last year that will apply to major companies operating in the state.
California was sued earlier this year over those laws by the US Chamber of Commerce, which also is challenging the SEC’s rules in court. Newsom is pushing to delay his state’s emissions reporting requirements from 2026 to 2028.
The Chamber said California violated the First Amendment’s protections against compelled speech with its requirements and the SEC abused its power when issuing its rules. Bonta said California and the SEC acted lawfully.
The SEC’s requirements are necessary for investors in California and elsewhere to adequately assess risks companies face from extreme weather and other effects of climate change, Bonta said in an amicus brief filed in the Eighth Circuit Thursday.
“As those climate-related changes escalate, their effects on businesses will only intensify,” Bonta said. “Climate-related disclosures will help investors make informed decisions to protect their investments in the face of this reality."
This article was originally posted on Bloomberg Law.
To read the rest of the article click here.
