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SEC Greenhouse Gas rule could have unintended consequences for cattle producers, NCBA says

The chief council for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says a proposed greenhouse gas disclosure rule could lead to unintended consequences for farms and ranches.

Mary-Thomas Hart says the US Senate Committee on Banking heard testimony from Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Gary Gensler on Thursday.  “Some key takeaways from that hearing, Members of Congress are concerned about the FCC’s attempt to extend its authority into an area where it’s never been able to regulate before,” she says.  “Also, an area where it’s not the technical expert.”

Hart says the SEC’s greenhouse gas disclosure rule would require publicly traded companies to disclose their direct (scope 1), indirect/energy use (scope 2), and supply chain (scope 3) greenhouse gas emissions. 

She tells Brownfield there currently isn’t an accurate way for individual producers to measure how much methane is emitted from their cattle or how much carbon is sequestered through grasslands.  “Until we have that technology available, I don’t think we should be comfortable giving information to a publicly traded company that’s been going to be given to the federal government,” she says.  “It creates a significant new burden for cattle producers up and down the supply chain.”  Hart says ag groups says the SEC can get the information it needs for scope 3 emissions (the supply chain) through existing publicly available data sets. 

NCBA previously submitted technical comments on the rule and individual cattle producers sent over 7,400 emails to SEC commissioners and members of Congress expressing concern with rule. NCBA has encouraged the SEC to remove the requirement to disclose scope 3 emissions, which would lessen the burden on cattle producers.

AUDIO: NCBA’s Mary-Thomas Hart