May 12, 2022NPC requests extension on overreaching new SEC climate rule
The National Potato Council joined more than 100 agricultural organizations on a letter requesting a 180-day extension to the comment period for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Proposed Rule on The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate Related Disclosures for Investors. This proposed rule would require SEC-regulated entities and their suppliers, including family farms, to provide significant new public disclosures on climate related information.
In responding to the proposed rule, the request states, “Our members, who are entities ranging from small family farms to the largest multinational corporations, are nevertheless overwhelmingly not ‘registrants’ or otherwise subject in any way to the jurisdiction and oversight of the SEC. The proposed rule changes this.”
The proposed rule’s expansive treatment of the reporting of “Scope 3” greenhouse gas emissions not only directly impacts farm operations, but in doing so may create multiple, new sources of substantial costs and liabilities. These include almost certain reporting obligations, technical challenges, significant financial and operational disruption, and the risk of financially crippling legal liabilities. In doing so, the rule would have meaningful consequences to produce this country’s food, fuel and fiber as well as for the security and stability of U.S. agricultural supply chains.
The full letter can be found here.
– National Potato Council
