Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares celebrated a victory on Friday after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) halted the enforcement of its new climate changes rules for publicly traded businesses that were imposed by the Biden administration.
The coalition of 25 attorneys general originally sued the Biden administration to block SEC rule changes that require publicly listed businesses report what the government considers climate change risks. A press release from the attorney general notes companies would be forced to “release a plan to adapt to climate agenda recommendations” under the proposed rules.
Celebrating the SEC’s decision to freeze its enforcement of the rules, Miyares characterized them as “extreme” and “harmful” and said the decision by the SEC represents the fruits his office’s efforts to protect Virginians from federal overreach.
“President Biden continues to try to push his most extreme, harmful, and expensive policies without congressional approval – because he knows they’ll fail in Congress. He is actively avoiding the voice of the American people on mandates that will directly impact them,” said Miyares.
He continued, “As Attorney General, I’ll protect Virginians from federal overreach and harmful, illegal mandates.”
The decision by the SEC was partially prompted by a challenge to the Biden administration’s rules that is currently in the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In the commission’s announcement, the SEC explained that despite freezing the rules it will nonetheless defend them “vigorously” in court.
According to the SEC, “the Commission is not departing from its view that the Final Rules are consistent with applicable law and within the Commission’s long-standing authority to require the disclosure of information important to investors in making investment and voting decisions.”
Noting the number of challenges to the rules, the commission explained its intention to “continue vigorously defending the Final Rules’ validity in court,” but declared, “a stay of the Final Rules meets the statutory standard.”
In addition to the 25-state coalition, a separate challenge to the rules garnered the support of the attorneys general of Georgia, Virginia, West Virginia, Alabama, Alaska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming last month.
That coalition is led by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who called the Biden administration’s climate change rules for companies traded on the stock market “arbitrary and capricious.”
Biden administration officials originally conceived the new rules in 2022, when the president ordered a regulatory overhaul of the entire federal government to develop strategies to combat climate change.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “AG Jason Miyares” by AG Jason Miyares.
