In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, former SEC Commissioner Paul S. Atkins criticized a recent petition signed by 17 law professors and institutional investors to require public companies to disclose environmental, social and governance investing information.
Mr. Atkins stated that the petition, if adopted, would be unnecessarily burdensome for companies by creating a "laundry list of possible disclosures." He argued that such a requirement would distract investors from the real statutory purpose of disclosure, which is to give investors material information for making investing decisions. Mr. Atkins said that requiring public issuers to disclose immaterial information would be harmful because more information may not be better information and could result in confusion and obscure pertinent disclosures.
Commentary / Steven Lofchie
The fundamental question is whether the petition is driven by political concerns or concerns of investors. If it is driven by political concerns, for which the argument is quite strong, the petition should be defeated.
