Here’s a rarity: a federal regulator who sticks up for the interests of American companies against foreign government predators.

We’re speaking of Paul Atkins, the Trump-appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins is fighting back against the EU bureaucrats promoting policies to fight global warming and forcing American firms to comply with burdensome ESG rules.

Atkins lectured a gathering of OECD bureaucrats that the so-called Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (who in the world thinks up these things) imposes “unnecessary compliance costs that could be passed on to American investors and companies.” These climate disclosure rules are “unrelated to the economic success of companies and their shareholders.”

He said the U.S. won’t stand for rules that hurt investors without any “offsetting social or environmental benefits.”

It’s refreshing to hear the head of a major regulatory agency working to roll back the onerous compliance costs of government rules.