Big U.S. investors push SEC for oil industry to detail risks of climate change
Good. Light is a disinfectant. Maybe boneheads like Rick Scott and Inhofe will finally have to acknowledge climate change is real.
Big U.S. investors push SEC for oil industry to detail risks of climate change
WILLISTON, N.D., April 17 | By Ernest Scheyder
(Reuters) - Calpers, the largest American public pension fund, and nearly 60 other institutional investors will ask the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday to require oil and natural gas companies to publish detailed analysis of the risks posed by climate change to their business models.
The letter, also signed several U.S. state treasurers, asks SEC Chair Mary Jo White to require oil producers to publish "meaningful, substantive carbon asset risk disclosures," much in the way they already disclose information on factors outside their control, such as commodity and currency price swings.
Some oil companies provide general information already about how much they could lose if climate change worsens and regulation or cultural shifts reduce consumption. This letter seeks concrete details about how they reached those conclusions.
Calpers and other investors will tell the SEC more specifics are needed to better gauge whether to invest in the sector, according to a draft letter seen by Reuters.
"I would be surprised if companies like Exxon Mobil and Chevron are not doing some kind of internal analysis already of what the impact on their reserves would be if we change our fossil fuel use," said Shanna Cleveland of nonprofit Ceres that worked with investors to craft the letter.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/17/energy-climatechange-idUSL2N0XA24820150417