Whitehouse, Warren Urge SEC to Abandon Proposed Rescission of SEC Climate Disclosure Rules

Partisan attacks on SEC rule were part of coordinated, fossil-fuel-funded effort to block investors from understanding major financial risks of climate change

Washington, D.C. - Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, submitted a comment to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) urging the Commission to withdraw its proposed rescission of climate-related disclosure rules adopted in March 2024. The SEC rule requires public companies to disclose climate-related risks to their businesses, which is within both the SEC's statutory authority and its past pattern and practice with respect to risk disclosures.

In May 2026, the Trump SEC proposed to rescind the climate-related disclosure rules, bowing to an intense pressure campaign funded by fossil-fuel corporate interests.

"Investors have made their position clear for years: voluntary, piecemeal climate disclosure does not meet their needs, and only a standardized federal framework does. The Commission's mandate is investor protection, not issuer convenience. Rescinding the final rules will not make climate-related financial risk disappear; it will only make that risk harder for investors to see. The bottom line is that climate risks are real and 'systemic'; that warnings are many and dire; that insurance, mortgage, and real estate markets are already affected; and that creating an information vacuum around these risks (to the economy generally, to industries specifically, and the companies individually) is a dangerous choice," wrote Whitehouse and Warren.

"Crashes build gradually and then happen all at once. Preparation matters, and information is the foundation of preparation. The Commission should withdraw the proposed rescission and retain the final climate disclosure rules," concluded the senators.

The SEC adopted its final climate-related disclosure rule in March 2024-a rule that was already watered-down after industry groups lobbied hard against the strong draft rule. Despite winning significant concessions from the SEC, several industry groups, the fossil-fuel-funded Chamber of Commerce, and 25 Republican Attorneys General challenged even the watered-down rule in court. Senators Whitehouse and Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Representatives Sean Casten (D-IL) and Juan Vargas (D-CA) filed an amicus brief in Iowa v. SEC, a case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The members' brief urged the court to dismiss the groups' claim that the SEC lacks the authority to compel climate risk disclosure. But in March 2025, the Trump SEC voted to end its defense of the climate-related risks rule in that case, previewing its ultimate decision to propose to rescind the rule altogether.

A PDF of the comment letter is available here.