Securities and Capital Markets attorney Alex McClean speaks with the National Law Journal’s Dan Novak about the SEC’s climate change disclosure regulation that was finalized back in March 2024—which requires public companies to disclose information on their direct or indirect greenhouse gas emissions. The SEC stayed the rule in April of 2024 because of pending legal challenges filed in the Eighth Circuit. McClean addresses this controversial SEC rule saying, “states will likely fill the void left by the SEC’s abandonment of the rule. California has its own climate disclosure rule, and New York, Illinois, Colorado and New Jersey have introduced climate disclosure legislation.”
McClean added that, while the SEC rule still stands, it is very unlikely to ever go into effect.
“The rule is very much a zombie. It’s not dead yet; it’s kind of the living dead,” McClean said. “Somebody’s going to have to put the stake in the heart, whether it’s the courts or it’s the SEC. It’s still alive, but clearly there’s no intent for it to be implemented.”
The Harter Secrest & Emery Securities and Capital Markets team will keep you updated with the ever-evolving SEC regulations.
To read the full article on the National Law Journal‘s website, click here.