Ag groups are hailing this week’s Securities and Exchange Commission’s final rule on reporting greenhouse gas emissions. National Cattlemen’s Chief Counsel Mary-Thomas Hart says the 2022 SEC proposed rule wasn’t a good idea to begin with.
“Farmers and ranchers across the country would have had to submit their greenhouse gas emissions, eventually providing those reports to the federal government.”
That’s simply because a producer sold to a publicly traded firm.
“Fortunately, those companies will no longer be required to submit that information.”
The reporting proposal first raised alarms at the American Farm Bureau, where Travis Cushman said AFB was wildly worried.
“It has the potential to mean the farmer is going to have to keep track of a very, very onerous set of emissions data, from carbon dioxide to methane, to a slew of other emissions and has potential to require a farmer to keep track of every gallon of diesel he puts in his tractor.”
Putting a huge squeeze on small and medium-sized farms that don’t have the technology or time to comply. NCBA’s Hart blames a growing trend in the corporate world for the initial SEC push.
“The latest attempt by shareholders to get more and more information out of publicly-traded companies, so unfortunately, we were just potential collateral damage of that desire.”
-NAFB