The legal battle over Securities and Exchange Commission rulemaking that requires oil, gas, and mining companies to disclose payments made to governments for extraction rights has escalated with legislators joining the fray and suggesting, as does the international relief organization Oxfam America, that overturning the rule could chip away at the very foundation of securities regulation in the U.S.
In October, the American Petroleum Institute (API), the Independent Petroleum Association of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Foreign Trade Council sued the SEC over the final transparency rule issued in August. It requires registered oil, gas and mining companies to disclose any payment, or series of related payments, totaling $100,000 or more that are made during the course of a fiscal year to the U.S. or foreign governments in exchange for extracting resources.
