# Plain Language Summary: The Scope 3 Act

This bill prevents the government from requiring large companies to publicly report on the pollution created by their entire supply chains and product use. To understand what that means, imagine a clothing company that manufactures shirts in factories overseas, ships them across the ocean, sells them in stores, and customers eventually throw them away. Right now, regulators are moving toward requiring companies to measure and disclose the greenhouse gas emissions from all those steps—not just their own factories, but also their suppliers' emissions, transportation, and what happens to products after people buy them. This bill says companies can't be forced to report those numbers.

The practical effect is that investors and the public would have less information about the total environmental impact of companies they invest in or buy from. If you own stock in a company or are considering buying products from one, you wouldn't be able to easily find out how much pollution that company's entire operation creates. This matters because many investors, pension funds, and consumers increasingly want to know about environmental impacts when making financial decisions. The bill essentially shields companies from having to measure and share this broader pollution picture.

The bill specifically targets what's called "Scope 3 emissions"—the hardest-to-measure category of pollution because it includes everything outside a company's direct control. Companies would still be allowed to report this information if they want to, but regulators couldn't make them do it. This is a significant rollback of environmental transparency rules that were being developed, particularly by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which oversees how publicly traded companies must disclose information to investors.

Scope 3 Act

Nehls, Troy E.

Scope 3 Act This bill prohibits any requirement that an issuer of securities must disclose the greenhouse gas emissions of its value chain (i.e., scope 3 emissions).