[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 43 (Thursday, March 17, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S1597]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. REED (for himself, Mrs. Feinstein, and Mr. Whitehouse):
  S. 2716. A bill to update the oil and gas and mining industry guides 
of the Securities and Exchange Commission; to the Committee on Banking, 
Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, today I am introducing legislation to 
require the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, to update its 
industry guides for oil, gas, and mining companies.
  In November 2015, Peabody Energy agreed to provide comprehensive SEC 
disclosures about climate change risks facing the company when it 
settled charges of misleading investors. The company executed this 
settlement with the New York Attorney General after an investigation 
discovered that Peabody Energy ``repeatedly denied in public financial 
filings to the SEC that it had the ability to predict the impact that 
potential regulation of climate change pollution would have on its 
business, even though Peabody and its consultants actually made 
projections that such regulation would have severe impacts on the 
company.''
  Unfortunately, it appears that the SEC had no role in this 
settlement, in which Peabody Energy agreed to amend its SEC 
disclosures, admitting that ``concerns about the environmental impacts 
of coal combustion . . . could significantly affect demand for our 
products or our securities.''
  It is clear that the SEC needs to do more when it comes to critically 
reviewing the disclosures being filed by publicly traded companies, but 
it is also clear that the SEC's industry guides for oil, gas, and 
mining companies should be updated to reflect the growing risk of 
climate change to these companies. By so doing, the investing public 
can access the material information necessary to make informed 
decisions when investing in these types of companies. Indeed, it is for 
this reason that the SEC has established industry guides for certain 
industries with complex financial and non-financial data.
  These disclosures are important to investors, such as Allianz Global 
Investors, which is a global diversified active investment manager with 
nearly $500 billion in assets under management. Allianz has 
specifically called for ``achieving better disclosure of the effects of 
carbon costs on the Oil & Gas companies.''
  In updating the industry guides for oil, gas, and mining companies, 
my legislation would direct the SEC to work with the SEC's Investor 
Advisory Committee. This Committee was established by the Wall Street 
Reform and Consumer Protection Act to advise and consult with the SEC 
on regulatory priorities, the regulation of securities products, 
trading strategies, fee structures, disclosure effectiveness, and on 
initiatives to promote investor confidence and the integrity of the 
securities marketplace.
  I thank Ceres for their support, and I also thank Representative 
Cartwright for introducing companion legislation in the House of 
Representatives today. I urge our colleagues to join us in supporting 
this legislation.
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