Senators Urge Treasury to Stop Pressuring State Insurance Regulators on Climate Change

Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Tim Scott (R-SC) protested "recent climate related actions taken by the Department of Treasury's Federal Insurance Office" ("FIO").

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the Senators, along with numerous Republican legislators, called on FIO to cease pressuring state insurance regulators into implementing the Biden Administration’s "unrealistic environmental, social, and governance agenda." The Senators said that FIO’s actions, including its proposal on climate related data collection, make state insurance regulators feel "coerced" to adopt high cost, one-size-fits-all climate-risk mitigation policies. The Senators urged the FIO to recognize the real-world impacts of ESG strategies, including (i) an increase in compliance costs on insurers and (ii) higher premiums for Americans. The Senators stated that many insurers are already taking into account climate-related risks, as it is within their best interests to account for risks from various sources, and that FIO should recognize that fact.