ESG Enforcement Emerges as Risk for Oil Firms, Bitcoin Miners

An SEC enforcement initiative targeting misleading ESG disclosures has become a business risk for dozens of public companies, including bankrupt Bitcoin miner Core Scientific, shale oil producer Pioneer Natural Resources and banking giant Ally.

The Climate and ESG Task Force the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was launched two years ago, was mentioned among the risk factors in 30 companies’ 10-K annual reports so far this year with about six months to go, according to a Bloomberg Law review of company filings. That’s double the 15 companies that referenced it in their 10-K risk factors in all of 2022.