Press Release

Alaska Attorney General Joins AG Letter Critical of SEC Rules

June 14, 2022

(Anchorage, AK) – Today, Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor joined 24 other attorneys general in a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission that finds fault with its proposed climate-related disclosure rules (1.12MB PDF). Attorneys general for West Virginia and Arizona led the effort.

The 42-page letter addressed to the Commission’s secretary takes issue with the proposed disclosure rules from many angles, ranging from statutory challenges to constitutional issues with the Administrative Procedure Act.

"These proposed disclosure rules threaten American business at its core," said Attorney General Taylor. "Among its cost-prohibitive requests, it will require businesses to calculate and disclose emissions levels for their entire supply chains."

The letter begins "The Proposed Rule seeks to recast the Commission’s statutory role and remake the federal securities disclosure regime, all in an ill-advised misadventure into environmental regulation. Though "Congress created the SEC to protect investors and financial markets,"1 the Proposed Rule does nothing to "protect" either. Instead, it pushes naked policy preferences far afield of the Commission’s market-focused domain," the letter states.

"This effort reflects agency mission creep of the worst kind. The administration has tried and failed to impose regulation directly, and it now appears content to use back-door financial regulatory actions to implement its political will. But it is up to lawmakers to decide major policy questions like these, not unelected agency administrators."

A concern in Alaska is ensuring that oil and gas operators have access to capital and a level playing field for the criteria and evaluation of what a project is to be judged on. The current "climate risk" and ‘climate impact" approach is highly subjective and not based in any type of sound scientific analysis or method.

Alaska Revenue Commissioner Lucinda Mahoney issued this statement: "Over the past several months, I have watched with dismay as the SEC Commission and other federal commissions and boards have proposed rules and policies that promote political causes that will adversely affect public finance and retirement income. The Proposed SEC Rule is another such rule. The Proposed Rule is likely to cause massive shifts to the American economy, driving investment away from sectors that support millions of jobs and thousands of fragile communities—all at a time when historic levels of inflation, including especially hikes in food and energy prices, making such changes most painful to lower-income Americans. The SEC Commission has also issued the Proposed Rules at a time when domestic energy production is a matter of national security. These changes will likely drive up energy prices at the precise moment that surging gas prices are causing grave concerns for millions of American households. Yet the Commission fails even to inquire about the nature of these effects, let alone compare them against the benefits it is asserted to achieve."

The letter is addressed to the Commission Secretary: Comments on Proposed Rule Amendments titled "The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors" by the Attorneys General of the States of West Virginia, Arizona, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming (SEC File No. S7-10-22)

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Department Media Contacts: Communications Director Patty Sullivan at patty.sullivan@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6368. Information Officer Sam Curtis at sam.curtis@alaska.gov or (907) 269-6269.