READY TO DISCLOSE: The Securities and Exchange Commission will outline its long-awaited draft proposal for publicly traded companies to disclose their risks to climate change today. The move is the first step toward having firms reveal their greenhouse gas emissions and how the effects of climate change — such as policies to combat rising temperatures or from the physical risks manifesting from a hotter planet — pose to their bottom line. Advocates contend the move is long overdue, and are correcting a market failure for the economic costs heat-trapping gases have wrought. They say the SEC effort will protect investors from those growing risks by presenting them with more information about which companies face the greatest exposure to climate change, a move that would bring the U.S. into greater alignment with ongoing efforts in the European Union. The proposal is sure to invite lawsuits from Republican state officials and industry who contend the SEC is going beyond its mandate. Regardless, expect the SEC to take a "spaghetti at the wall" approach in its first cut, Maggie Peloso, an environmental lawyer Vinson & Elkins, told Zack. Key things to watch include whether the SEC requires some or all companies to disclose their Scope 3 emissions, meaning those from the end-use of a product — such as requiring an oil and gas producer to tally their emissions from the use of their petroleum products — and how the SEC conveys climate disclosure is "material," meaning something a reasonable investor would need to know. OIL LEASE WORK RESUMES: The Interior Department will restart its planning for oil and gas leasing after a federal court put the administration's social cost of carbon back into the game, DOI announced Friday. It's the latest move in the saga around offering new acreage to the oil and gas industry, which the Biden administration had frozen last year. Interior did not say when it might hold the next oil and gas lease sale, which Republicans, the energy industry and some Democrats say are needed to help boost U.S. production amid the global energy crunch. Of course, any oil from new federal lands that would be leased at auction will take about two years to come online, so there's no immediate affect for crude prices. But proponents say regular sales will ensure output from federal lands — which provide about 8 percent of U.S. oil — won't slow in the coming years. Marty Durbin, the head of the U.S. Chamber's Global Energy Institute, welcomed the move. "We are encouraged by the Department of Interior's announcement that it will resume lease sales on federal lands and waters," he said in a statement. "The Department should move expeditiously to conduct scheduled sales, while also accelerating work on the next Five Year Plan for offshore oil and gas development." The Biden administration had halted its planning when a federal court ruled the social cost of carbon was illegal, but that decision was subsequently stayed on appeal. The metric is used to determine the monetary cost of carbon emissions, which the Biden administration had returned to about $50 per ton of carbon emitted after the Trump administration had sharply reduced it. DOI said the metric's revival "provides important information that has been part of the foundation of the work the Interior Department has undertaken over the past year." "With this ruling, the Department continues its planning for responsible oil and gas development on America's public lands and waters," Interior spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said in a statement. Read more from Ben. KEEP IT ON THE RECORD: The Energy Department prohibited the use of encrypted messaging applications, including WhatsApp and Signal, on department-issued mobile devices and technology equipment, according to a document obtained by POLITICO's Kelsey Tamborrino. The guidance, sent to staff March 17, also prohibited the non-DOE approved encrypted messaging applications on staffers' personally owned devices to perform government business, and said that if similar end-to-end encrypted apps are identified in the future, those too may be deleted. A DOE spokesperson confirmed the guidance. "The Federal Records Act requires all departments and agencies to properly capture the Federal records created during the execution of official business," Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk wrote to staff. "Using encrypted messaging applications, such as Signal and WhatsApp, creates risks that Federal records may not be properly retained as required by law and DOE policy." The guidance said WhatsApp or Signal will be removed from all DOE-issued devices starting on April 4 and set a March 30 deadline to preserve any records created through the applications. The potential for government officials to use encrypted messaging apps has prompted warnings from lawmakers who fear it could be used to skirt public access to information, including through the Freedom of Information Act. Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) wrote to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in May 2021 requesting information on the use of encrypted messaging applications within DOE, which he wrote "could represent an effort to cloak certain communications, limit Administration accountability, and potentially obscure illicit activity." He said at the time: "I have heard reports that high-ranking Biden Administration officials have utilized various encrypted messaging applications while conducting official government business." Republicans on the House Oversight Committee last week also requested the D.C. Office of the Inspector General conduct a review of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and employees' use of the technology following an Axios report that said the mayor's administration used WhatsApp widely across the city government. STAFFING SHUFFLE: The department also made some staffing moves last week, including Christopher Davis replacing Tarak Shah as chief of staff. Shah announced last Tuesday he was stepping down from the post. Davis is a veteran of the Obama White House Office of Legislative Affairs and Obama DOE. He was also a staffer in the House Oversight and House Energy and Commerce committees. Other staffing changes include Bridget Bartol, deputy director of the Office of Public Affairs, who will be deputy chief of staff to the secretary. The current deputy COS, Jeremiah Baumann, will move to chief of staff to the undersecretary for infrastructure. Kelsey has more for Pros. PANEL FORMALLY CALLS FOR STRONGER PM STANDARD: EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee on Friday formally sent Administrator Michael Regan their recommendation that he strengthen the national air quality standard for fine particulate matter. As in their February draft, all seven members agreed that the current annual standard for fine particulate matter, or PM2.5 — left unchanged by the Trump administration at 12 micrograms — "is not sufficiently protective of public health and should be lowered." The panel continued to split on exactly where it should be set, with a majority citing a range of 8-10 micrograms and a minority calling for a range of 10-11 micrograms. In addition, a majority of CASAC members called for strengthening the 24-hour PM2.5 standard from 35 micrograms down to a range of 25-30 micrograms (along with some wonky advice on how EPA calculates exposures over that period). EPA is expected to propose revised standards later this year and finalize them sometime in 2023.
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