February 13, 2012
Dear SEC Commissioners,
Please do not give in to industry pressures on Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act (the Cardin-Lugar Amendment) - and make sure that ALL companies are covered, every country and every project gets reported, and loopholes that would allow large sums of money to go unreported are closed.
My Comment:
SEC must require all oil companies to publicly disclose all payments or other money transfers to foreign governments, thereby illuminating the frequently unfair or explicitly corrupt handling of energy-extraction revenues by those foreign governments. By making this data public, a reasonable SEC rule that upholds the intent of the law would empower communities in other countries to demand a fairer share of the resource wealth in their own lands.
Jim Steitz