Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird led a nine-state coalition on Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging the Biden Security and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) rule that mandates businesses report their greenhouse gas emissions. This is the second major state-led lawsuit against the SEC mandate, after 10 states filed in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals last week. Additional states are expected to follow suit in their own districts.
The new rule burdens businesses with costly red tape and forces business owners to reveal proprietary information that they need to keep confidential for their business’s success. The increased regulations will also slow production, crush the supply chain, and hurt family farmers.
“Biden has, once again, turned his back on the heartland and Iowa farmers with his latest climate scheme,” said Attorney General Bird. “He knows his radical climate agenda doesn’t have support from Congress, so he illegally sidesteps our lawmakers to force his mandate on Iowans. Not only will this mandate impose costly red tape on businesses, but it will devastate our supply chain and hurt Iowa family farms. I’m suing because, unlike Biden, I am committed to supporting Iowa’s farmers and businesses and upholding the rule of law.”
The greenhouse gas reports are part of Biden’s radical green scheme and an attempt to influence investments based on climate change theories rather than returns. It will also require businesses to disclose climate-related risks, including higher insurance rates from weather disasters, and release a plan to adapt to climate agenda recommendations.
The lawsuit will make the case that the SEC cannot implement this mandate without an act of Congress and is just the most recent example of Biden going too far to force his radical green scheme.
Iowa led the lawsuit and was joined by Arkansas, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce.
Read the full lawsuit here.
