Twenty-five states are rejecting allowing “natural asset companies” to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, and a group of Republican attorneys general are accusing the Biden administration of conspiring with Wall Street investors to enact limits on how they can be used. public lands. .
In a Tuesday letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, half of the nation's state attorneys general urged the oversight agency to reject an investment proposal known as “natural asset companies.”
The proposal currently before the SEC would allow companies with a mission to improve ecosystems through the management, maintenance or restoration of publicly or privately owned lands to be listed on the stock exchange. The companies would then assess the health of the land and assign a dollar value to the resulting benefits, such as clean air or habitat for wildlife.
But opponents, including conservative lawmakers and property rights advocates, have said the proposal would also boost the Biden administration's plans to conserve more public lands and put them out of reach of extractive industries and ranchers.
In a 16 page letterled by Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) and Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R), the attorneys general noted. to pending public lands rule under consideration by the Bureau of Land Management that would put conservation on par with those uses, including offering 10-year leases to restore acreage.
“The proposed rule provides a mechanism for companies whose purpose is not to make money, but to block lands to prohibit productive economic uses of them, to find investors and capital so that they can obtain conservation leases and other 'ecological performance rights'” . says the letter.
Top Lawyers in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia , West. Virginia and Wyoming also signed the letter. All officials are Republicans.
“The proposed rule is part of an interlocking scheme designed to facilitate another agency's violation of the law, namely, BLM's issuance of illegal 'conservation leases,'” the letter continues.
But an Interior spokesman ruled out any connection between the Biden administration's conservation efforts and Wall Street investments.
"There is no relationship or connection between the New York Stock Exchange's proposal to adopt a new standard for listing natural asset companies and the Bureau of Land Management's efforts to protect our lands, waters and wildlife habitats. "said the spokesperson. "The BLM is also not involved in any way in the Securities and Exchange Commission's review of this proposal."
Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, rejected the accusations brought forward by Republican attorneys general, suggesting that critics are simply trying to protect industries that depend on the use of those same public lands.
"If your business model is based entirely on extracting value from the land, this is a fundamental threat to that way of thinking," Weiss said.
He noted that the prospect of Wall Street investors funding landscape health analysis could also be a concern for some users.
"One of the central things about the SEC proposal is that natural asset companies have to measure the health of the land they own or manage," Weiss said. "And that leads to one of the biggest failings on public lands right now, which is that BLM doesn't have the resources to measure the health of its public lands."
Republican members of the House Natural Resources Committee also expressed concerns about the proposal Thursday. issuing a letter to senior SEC officials seeking information on the development of the proposal.
That request seeks communications between the SEC, NYSE and financial services firm Intrinsic Exchange Group, which launched the idea two years ago.
A spokesman for the New York Stock Exchange declined to comment. Intrinsic Exchange Group did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The panel also requests details of any discussions between the SEC and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, along with any non-governmental organizations involved in developing the proposal.
“The Committee is deeply concerned about the possible impact [natural asset companies] may have on the management of federal lands, the effective conservation of wildlife habitat, and the responsible development of natural resources,” the letter states.
