On July 28, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) declined to comment about its approval process to list Natural Asset Companies on the New York Stock Exchange. The SEC didn't provide a timeline for its pending decision.
"We would decline to comment on a specific company," the SEC said. "Generally speaking, and not about specific filing or company, when a rule has been filed and accepted by the SEC you will see it in the Federal Register and it will appear on our Self-Regulatory Organization rule making page at sec.gov/rules/sro.shtml."
In September of 2021, the Intrinsic Exchange Group (IEG) partnered with the New York Stock Exchange to create Natural Asset Companies (NACs), a new type of publicly traded company that would convert resources on public lands and easements on private properties into “stores of value.” The stock exchange is pursuing "unique listing requirements” from the SEC for "X" (NACs) to be listed as an investment product.
The American Stewards of Liberty, a non-profit organization that focuses on private property rights, has questioned how intrinsic values in nature can be quantified and converted to become investment products. The IEG claims on its website that a new economy developed around natural asset companies would be worth $5 trillion compared to the total U.S. economy, which the IEG says is worth $1.5 trillion.
According to the IEG's website, “A NAC’s equity is a store of value like any other security or asset. The stocks of water, timber, biodiversity, soil, carbon, fish and other natural assets that make life on Earth possible are now protected under a NAC and are thus the ultimate store of value for investors.”
The American Stewards of Liberty noted in a recent report that the IEG relies on the United Nation's accounting guidelines.
According to the report, “IEG’s NAC Reporting Framework is grounded in the guidelines outlined in the United Nations System of Environmental and Economic Accounting – Ecosystem Accounting Framework (SEEA EA), and builds on it to include a wider array of potential economic values and valuation approaches."
The report noted these new Natural Capital Accounts will be used to quantify the value of nature and list them as federal assets. It further states, "this would provide a basis to increase the national debt and impose new fees and taxes on the American people. It will also establish the fixed and intrinsic value for the federally protected lands, potentially positioning them to be enrolled in the private NAC accounts."
