Unleash Prosperity hosted a dinner recently with Paul Atkins, who is turning into one of this administration’s deregulation superstars. Last week, he issued a rules change that reverses Biden-era climate change mandates for publicly traded companies. (Why is the SEC even involved in climate issues?)

The gobbledygook rules to be repealed include required disclosures of “climate-related information in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including board oversight of climate issues, internal carbon pricing and financial effects from severe weather events.”

Of course, a firm should as a matter of prudent risk assessment take into account risks of property losses from weather events such as tornadoes, floods, drought, and severe heat waves. But we have no idea what “internal carbon pricing” even means.

Best of all, the SEC under Atkins is repealing the insidious and invasive Biden-era requirements that firms monitor and enforce carbon reduction plans by their small downstream customers and suppliers. It’s like spying on your next-door neighbor.