WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined U.S. Senators John Boozman (R-AR) and Mike Braun (R-IN) to cosponsor the Protect Farmers from the SEC Act to exempt family farmers from Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirements to report all operational Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The legislation comes in response to the SEC’s proposed rule that would require publicly-traded companies—including farms that fall outside of the SEC’s statutory authority—to include certain climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports.
U.S. Representative Frank Lucas (R-OK-03) introduced the legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
“The foundation of our economy is agriculture,” Senator Tuberville said. “Yet the radical climate activists in the Biden Administration keep putting more and more burdensome rules on our farmers and producers. This makes their jobs even harder and it drives up prices at the grocery store. This bill will protect our farmers from the Biden Administration’s latest climate rule. I will always fight in the United States Senate so our farmers and producers can continue to feed, fuel, and clothe our nation.”
Alabama Farmers Federation President Jimmy Parnell also voiced his support of the legislation:
“The Alabama Farmers Federation appreciates Sen. Tuberville’s efforts to exempt family farms from this ridiculous attempt to regulate farmers through the Securities and Exchange Commission. Farmers should be focused on growing the food and fiber that is vital to our economic and national security, not hiring compliance teams to help them navigate Wall Street regulations. This rule would be yet another burden placed on family farmers in an effort to advance the ESG agenda that has proven time and time again to be harmful to our nation’s best interests.”
As Alabama’s voice on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee (AG), Senator Tuberville has spoken out about the drastic impacts that the Biden administration’s climate agenda would have on farmers, foresters, and producers.
In March 2022, the SEC announced an overreaching climate disclosure proposal that would require all public companies to disclose GHG emissions from operations a company owns or controls, including purchased electricity, steam, heat, or cooling consumed by company operations as well as indirect GHG emissions that occur upstream and downstream in the registrant’s value chain. Senator Tuberville warned SEC Chairman Gary Gensler against the proposed rule, saying it would place burdensome climate disclosure regulations on farmers and agriculture producers.
Senator Tuberville has also encouraged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to maintain an exemption of air emission from animal waste at farms under the Emergency Planning Community Right-to-Know Act.
If passed, the Protect Farmers from the SEC Act would exempt farms from SEC requirements to disclose greenhouse gas emissions from upstream and downstream activities in the issuer’s value chain.
Other cosponsors of this legislation are U.S. Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), J.D. Vance (R-OH), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), John Kennedy (R-LA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), and Steve Daines (R-MT).
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees.
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