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.
