How Corporate America Won The Fight To Keep Its Pollution Secret

Polluter lobbying, conservative courts, and the Biden Administration all played a role.

by Arielle Samuelson, Heated

One of the biggest challenges in holding corporations responsible for the climate crisis is that we have no idea how much they’re polluting. And corporate America is fighting tooth and nail to keep it that way.

Sure, there are corporations that try to earn green points by voluntarily disclosing their greenhouse gas emissions—ExxonMobil is one, Walmart is another. But currently, under federal law, there is no rule requiring companies to accurately calculate or divulge their full impact on the planet. Nor is there a rule saying that companies have to report how the climate crisis is impacting their business, and hurting their bottom line.

Toxic waste from human hands Industries that create pollution and cities that are affected by pollution.

All that was set to change when the most powerful financial regulatory body in the country decided that the climate crisis was a “significant risk” too big to ignore. In 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a climate disclosure rule that would have forced public companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions—from their direct emissions (also known as Scope 1 emissions), to emissions from their energy use (Scope 2), to emissions from their supply chain (Scope 3). It also would have required that companies report how climate change is impacting their bottom line.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, on Wednesday, the five-person SEC voted to adopt a climate disclosure rule that was significantly watered down. It is no longer mandatory for companies to report their emissions; instead it says that companies should disclose their greenhouse gas emissions if they consider them “material”—in other words, of significant importance to their investors. It made no mention of Scope 3 emissions, which are the largest portion of any company’s pollution. (For example, 80 percent of Exxon’s emissions are Scope 3).