Higher prices at the grocery store and the gas pump are hitting consumers hard. A recent rule proposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would make matters worse by turning public and private companies into collectors of climate information, a costly move that is sure to increase costs to shareholders and consumers alike.
This unprecedented proposal and its harmful effects on businesses large and small, as well as investors, cannot be understated. The SEC rulemaking would require all publicly traded companies to collect massive amounts of climate risk data. If companies disclose the most comprehensive but ill-defined emission data (as advocated by two commissioners), private companies and “mom and pop” operations such as farmers, which have never collected such data and typically have neither the budget nor expertise to do so, would similarly be forced to collect and share greenhouse-gas data or risk losing significant business.
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