A coalition of the willing

From the inbox, a heads up from ED (Coalition asks SEC for climate risk disclosure):

Environmental Defense is joining with a broad coalition of investors, state officials and others to petition the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to clarify that publicly traded companies must assess and fully disclose their financial risks from climate change.

This looks like a great idea to me. With carbon regulation a real possibility, wouldn't you want to know the carbon emissions of the companies that you invest in? It doesn't seem much of a burden on the companies either. They've already calculated their carbon emissions in order to arm their DC lobbyists with the right things to say about carbon taxes and cap-and-trade. One more thing, I think they should also ask each company to release their marginal abatement cost (the number would be a fib, but it would be fun to see what they conjure).

I see the Kentucky, Maryland and North Carolina state treasurers are signatories, what's up with Ohio? Oh, yeah, right. It's football season. The Ohio state treasurer is busy getting ready for a tailgate.

Can the Environmental Economics blog be a signatory?

The email also contained this bit of flattery: "we econ nerds over here at Environmental Defense pay close attention to your blog." First of all, we're highly embarrassed when real people read this blog -- whose main purpose is to facilitate the exchange of beer and flatulence jokes between the two primary contributors. Second, or maybe that was a warning ... "we're watching you, don't screw up"? If that is the case, we screw up daily. You can quit watching.

Comments

[Kira]

Heh. No implied threat! Just another econ junkie joining the party. :-) Not many people talk about congestion pricing just for fun!

[John Whitehead]

Kira,

I'll use anything I've got for a joke!