{"id":2589,"date":"2020-12-16T19:39:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T19:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=140169"},"modified":"2020-12-16T19:39:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T19:39:13","slug":"progressives-denounce-trump-secs-gift-to-the-oil-industry-as-anti-corruption-rule-gets-neutered-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/16\/progressives-denounce-trump-secs-gift-to-the-oil-industry-as-anti-corruption-rule-gets-neutered-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Progressives Denounce Trump SEC’s \u201cGift to the Oil Industry\u201d as Anti-Corruption Rule Gets Neutered"},"content":{"rendered":"
Progressives on Wednesday decried the Trump administration’s weakening of an anti-corruption rule requiring fossil fuel companies to disclose payments to foreign governments.<\/p>\n
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday night called <\/a>a rule change proposed by outgoing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Jay Clayton\u2014which ultimately passed Wednesday\u2014”a gift to the oil industry.”<\/p>\n Dodd-Frank required oil and gas companies to disclose payments to foreign governments to fight corruption \u2013 but the SEC\u2019s weak proposal is a gift to the oil industry. Chair Clayton needs to let the SEC analyze the rule and stop rushing to finalize it before he resigns. pic.twitter.com\/NmNZH7Eu47<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 16, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n While the Cardin-Lugar amendment\u2014which became law in 2010 as Section 1504 of the 2008 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act\u2014”established an international standard” for transparency by mandating oil, gas, and mining corporations to divulge payments to foreign governments, the SEC on Wednesday finalized “an extremely weak version of the oil anti-corruption rule,” advocacy group Public Citizen said <\/a>in a statement.<\/p>\n This isn’t the first time the fossil fuel industry has fought Section 1504, as The Daily Poster’s<\/em> Julia Rock reported <\/a>last week.<\/p>\n When Republicans in Congress were dismantling the strong version of the anti-corruption rule in 2011, former Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said<\/a> in a speech defending the legislation that “history shows that oil, gas reserves, and minerals frequently can be a bane, not a blessing, for poor countries, leading to corruption, wasteful spending, military adventurism, and instability.”<\/p>\n “Too often,” he added, “oil money intended for a nation’s poor ends up lining the pockets of the rich or is squandered on showcase projects instead of productive investments.”<\/p>\n Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of Public Citizen, said<\/a> Wednesday that in the aftermath of congressional Republicans’ elimination of “a robust version of the rule… Jay Clayton’s SEC is lock[ing] in a replacement rule rife with half-measures and loopholes.”<\/p>\n\n
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Both Democrats on the commission voted no to the rule, which requires only aggregated information at a national level in most cases, instead of on a contract-by-contract basis.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n