CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is leading a 21-state coalition in filing formal comments regarding a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed rule that would add onerous requirements for investment funds that consider Environmental, Social and Governance factors in their investment decisions.
The proposed rule, called Enhanced Disclosures by Certain Investment Advisers and Investment Companies about Environmental, Social and Governance Investment Practices, is another attempt by the SEC to transform itself from the “federal regulator of securities into a regulator of social ills,” according to the coalition’s comments letter.
“This proposed rule is nothing but another attempt from Biden’s administrative state to target fossil fuel companies as part of a larger partisan strategy. It violates the major questions doctrine, which was settled when we won our U.S. Supreme Court case in West Virginia v EPA, confirming that U.S. Congress — not a federal administrative agency — has the power to decide major issues of the day,” Morrisey said. “West Virginia will vigorously participate in the rulemaking process, and, if necessary, will go to court to defend against any regulatory overreach by the SEC or any other agency in the name of climate disclosures.”
Morrisey
The proposed rule would add onerous reporting requirements for investment funds with no rational justification, Morrisey said.
In June, he led a coalition of attorneys general in filing formal comments regarding an SEC initiative that would require companies to make policy statements not related to financial performance. And in July, he again took the lead in filing a supplemental letter regarding that same initiative, citing the recent Supreme Court ruling in West Virginia v EPA.
“The woke left is going full throttle in their mission to change every facet of American life, businesses and erode our democratic institutions to suit their liberal agenda,” Morrisey said. “The Biden administration wants to radically transform the SEC and other agencies run by unelected bureaucrats and make them champions of climate change, regardless of what those agencies’ functions are — Biden is creating a federal bureaucracy to suit his agenda.”
West Virginia was joined in the letter by Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.