US Rep. Huizenga to lead Republicans against SEC's climate change rule
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U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Holland Township, will lead a group of Republicans promising to address what it considers regulatory overreach by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in proposing a rule to force companies to release more detailed information on greenhouse gas emissions and other environmentally sensitive data to investors.
On Friday, U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., announced the formation of the group to be led by Huizenga, who chairs the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.
The group, which includes eight other members, will be looking into the SEC's decisions last year to begin pressing corporations to reveal to investors and the public more environmental, social and governance details, otherwise known as ESG, which can contribute to climate change.
A release said from Huizenga's office said the purpose of the group is "to combat the threat to our capital markets posed by those on the far-left pushing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) proposals."
“Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia vs EPA that government bureaucracies cannot arbitrarily expand their own regulatory reach,” Huizenga said. aid “The SEC’s climate disclosure rule is a prime example of this overreach that would have a wide-ranging impact on hard-working Americans across all walks of life."
McHenry said the group will "develop a comprehensive approach to ESG that protects the financial interests of everyday investors and ensures our capital markets remain the envy of the world." The group is expected to attempt to rein in the SEC's ESG rule, reinforce the so-called materiality standard which holds that only information substantially likely to be deemed important to a reasonable investor must be disclosed and to "hold to account" corporations attempt to use their "outsized influence to impose ideological preferences" on governments.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Bill Huizenga to lead Republicans assailing SEC's climate change rule
