In response to a possible Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule which would impact farmers and ranchers concerning greenhouse gas emissions, Congressman Frank Lucas has introduced legislation called the Protect Farmers from the SEC Act.
The SEC has proposed a climate disclosure rule that would require certain business interests to provide specific information about direct and indirect greenhouse emissions along that interest’s supply chain and deliveries. That could make it more difficult for small farmers and ranchers to do business with publicly traded companies regulated by the SEC.
“America’s farmers and ranchers work day in and day out only to struggle with supply chain disruptions, skyrocketing input costs, and burdensome regulations imposed by the irresponsible, nonsensical actions of the Biden Administration. While federal securities laws already require publicly traded companies to disclose material risks to investors, the SEC’s ill-advised climate disclosure rule undermines the materiality standard for environmental policy purposes. The proposed climate rule is so unwieldy and convoluted that publicly traded companies will be forced to require small, independent, family farms to report on-farm data regarding individual operations and day-to-day activities. In this capacity, the SEC would be granted unprecedented jurisdiction over family farms and ranches, hindering the ability of American farmers and ranchers to compete in global markets and creating onerous compliance requirements for operations with few or no employees,” said Lucas.
The Protect Farmers from the SEC Act would prohibit the SEC from requiring an issuer of securities to disclose greenhouse gas emissions from upstream and downstream activities in the issuer’s value chain arising from a farm, defines the production, manufacturing, or harvesting of an agricultural product through the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, outlines upstream and downstream activities, and defines greenhouse gases.
“The SEC is an independent financial regulator, whose statutory authority reflects its narrow focus on financial markets- not reconstructing America’s farm economy and meddling in capital allocation. I’m proud to introduce this critical legislation to protect America’s family farms and ranches from an encroaching and overreaching Biden Administration.”
