An Austin-based policy director for an energy industry advocacy group is asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to drop its proposal that would require companies to significantly increase climate risk reporting.

In his five-page statement submitted to the SEC earlier this month, Bill Peacock, policy director of the Energy Alliance, said the proposed climate-reporting rule likely would "exacerbate the political battle" over investing and efforts to address carbon-dioxide emissions. That, Peacock wrote, would distract from public and market responses to climate change concerns that have been going on for more than three decades.

"We encourage the commission to halt consideration of the proposed rule and let this debate take place in more appropriate venues, including Congress, the market and the American public," Peacock said in his statement. "Only by doing this can the SEC avoid the human, social and economic harms that would come from the adoption of this rule."

Earlier in his statement, Peacock warned that the proposed climate-reporting rule will require businesses to track and disclose all emissions, which will cost those businesses billions, if not trillions, of dollars.

"Not only will these costs reduce investment, employment and economic growth, they are completely unnecessary," Peacock wrote, adding that the proposed climate-reporting rule will require companies to share information about how climate-related risks will affect them. "Yet any material company information related to climate change has long been available to American investors, consumers and others interested in this issue."

Peacock also argued that there was no need for regulation, that companies already believe it is in their best interest to pursue a climate-friendly agenda and have been voluntarily pursuing that agenda.

He also cited the International Energy Agency's 2019 report that found the U.S. leading the world in energy-related reduction of CO2 emissions.

"Finally, this rule is not being proposed in a political vacuum," Peacock wrote. "Several states, including Texas and Arizona, are pushing back against investment firms and other companies that are targeting investment in traditional energy sources."

Peacock's comments, submitted on the last day of the comment period, June 17, was one of many comments submitted to the SEC about its proposed climate-reporting rule.

The Energy Alliance is a project of the Texas Business Coalition.

The proposed rule, S7-10-22 or the Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors, was described on the SEC website in March, with SEC Chair Gary Gensler saying at the time that the propose rule "would provide investors with consistent, comparable and decision-useful information for making their investment decisions, and it would provide consistent and clear reporting obligations for issuers."

"Companies and investors alike would benefit from the clear rules of the road proposed in this release," Gensler said at the time. "I believe the SEC has a role to play when there’s this level of demand for consistent and comparable information that may affect financial performance. Today’s proposal thus is driven by the needs of investors and issuers."

The following month, Functional Government Initiative was highly critical of the SEC, after its Freedom of Information Act request to review documents about the proposed climate-reporting rule was refused in about one day, according to Arizona Business Daily.

"I've never heard of a federal agency working so fast to 'carefully consider' a request, only to issue a blanket denial within a day," Functional Government Initiative spokesman Peter McGinnis said, according to Arizona Business Daily. "Perhaps I should be less surprised by the agency's hypocritical approach inherent in mandating climate disclosures for the private sector but dismissing requests for disclosure of its own public records. It does make one wonder what the agency is so concerned we will find that they’ve decided to play hide-and-seek with these records. In the middle of an energy crisis and record inflation, which special interests were so influential as to force out such an expansive and costly rule? We intend to find out."