Three flashpoints for coming battle on new climate risk rule

By Trey Thoelcke Published Mar 22, 10:38AM EDT

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Three flashpoints for coming battle on new climate risk rule — © DorianGray / iStock via Getty Images

By David Callaway, Callaway Climate Insights

(David Callaway is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Callaway Climate Insights. He is the former president of the World Editors Forum, Editor-in-Chief of USA Today and MarketWatch, and CEO of TheStreet Inc.)

Gary Gensler threaded the slimmest of needles Monday as his Securities and Exchange Commission finally proposed a rule to mandate climate reporting, attempting to please environmental progressives without stepping on legal tripwires that could set President Biden’s climate agenda back years.

The SEC Chairman and his agency’s long-awaited rule, which requires public companies to disclose their direct greenhouse gas emissions and report climate risk to their businesses, will be attacked on three legal fronts. All are winnable.

First, business groups, the fossil fuel lobby, and Republican politicians will claim the SEC’s mandate is to protect investors, not fight climate change. Coming at a time when the Supreme Court is weighing a case about the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate climate change, legal questions about the SEC’s authority will almost certainly form the core of the biggest challenges.

At issue will be whether climate risk is indeed financial risk . . . .

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About the Author Trey Thoelcke →

Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.

Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community. He previously oversaw the 24/7 Climate Insights site, managing editorial operations and content strategy, and currently oversees and creates content for My Investing News.

Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.

Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, overseeing a long-running critique group and moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions. He lives with his family in an old house in the Midwest.