The latest brief in a protracted legal struggle between environmentalists and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was filed in early November when the SEC published its proposed revised corporate environmental disclosure rules under the securities acts and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The new rules promulgated in obedience to court order and following a month-long public hearing held last spring, add little to the Commission's original environmental disclosure rules, which the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and two other plaintiffs had previously attacked as not going far enough to meet the requirements of NEPA. An analysis of the new rules, of organic SEC authority, and of the dictates of NEPA compels the conclusion that the new rules also fail to go far enough to meet those requirements.

The original rules were promulgated in April 1973. Although Judge Richey invalidated the rulemaking procedure by which they were developed, he maintained them in effect pending further SEC rulemaking. The original rules require SEC registrants (corporations reporting to the SEC) to disclose all "material" effects of their compliance with environmental laws and any "material" environmental litigation involving the corporation.