Today, the House Financial Services Committee is holding a hearing entitled “Beyond Scope: How the SEC’s Climate Rule Threatens American Markets.” Despite the fact that a majority of voters support climate risk disclosure rules on a bipartisan basis, extreme politicians have chosen to populate their witness list with an anti-responsible investing activist, industry CEO, and climate denier determined to protect his bottom line.
CHRIS WRIGHT is an oil industry CEO whose company is suing to stop the SEC climate disclosure rule. He has worked in the industry for decades, and his current company, Liberty Energy, serves companies like Exxon and ConocoPhillips
Wright has gone on the record saying “there is no climate crisis” and has ignored well-established science of climate change, saying “We have seen no increase in the frequency or intensity of hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts or floods despite endless fearmongering of the media, politicians and activists.” His videos were briefly removed from LinkedIn after they were flagged for misinformation.
Liberty Energy has claimed that responsible investing could “negatively impact [their] stock price or [their] access to capital.” They filed their complaint against the SEC climate risk disclosure rules in one of the most politically conservative courts in the country. However, because the Dallas-based Liberty subsidiary that enabled them to file the lawsuit in the 5th circuit is not publicly traded, it likely wouldn’t be required to file climate disclosure risk data in the first place.
Unlocking America’s Future Spokesperson Kyle Herrig said the following:
“The House Majority’s selection of Chris Wright as a witness shows how much of the opposition to the SEC’s climate risk disclosure rule is an exercise in protecting the bottom line of greedy CEOs. Self-serving politicians would prefer to do away with common sense measures like the climate risk disclosure rule because it means keeping their donors happy. Allowing a climate denier oil executive to testify against a rule that most Americans support is egregious.”
