"WASHINGTON - Wall Street's top regulator is crafting regulations to undo a dormant Biden-era rule intended to help investors gauge companies' climate-related spending and risks, according to a notice on the U.S. budget office website.
The move comes a year after the Securities and Exchange Commission declined to tell a federal court whether it planned either to change the rule or defend the 2024 regulations against industry-backed court challenges that dogged the agency's rule-making efforts under the previous administration.
Under former President Joe Biden, the SEC adopted watered-down rules requiring publicly traded companies to tell investors about climate-related risks, emissions and spending, with Republican-led states and an industry group immediately challenging this in court. The SEC then stayed the rule pending the outcome of the court battles.
Under Republican President Donald Trump, the SEC voted in March of last year to cease defending the rule in court, which industry and conservative critics said exceeded the SEC's legal authority. An appeals court then suspended consideration of the case."
