U.S. Senate Banking Committee Ranking Member Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) wants more information from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about its recently announced climate and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) enforcement task force. In a letter to Acting Chair Allison Herren Lee, Senator Toomey wrote: “These announcements appear to presage major changes in longstanding practices on disclosure and enforcement matters at the SEC. Such changes would be premature.” “It is imperative that the SEC provide fair notice, and fully comply with the Administrative Procedure Act if it is going to impose new requirements. The SEC also should not use enforcement actions as a backdoor for imposing new regulations on ESG and climate change issues.” The letter requests a briefing no later than the week of April 5, 2021 to better understand the scope and intention of this new task force and the SEC’s “enhanced focus” on climate and ESG-related priorities. Earlier this month, Ranking Member Toomey reacted to a speech from Acting Chair Lee calling for increased mandatory corporate disclosures on climate change, political donations, and other ESG issues, saying: “This would be a total abuse of power and a politicization of SEC’s disclosure standard. What matters is whether an issue is financially material to a reasonable investor, not if it conforms to the woke Left’s opinion about what’s best for humanity’s general welfare.”

Toomey Presses SEC on New Climate Enforcement Task Force | United States Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs