On October 4, the SEC proposed a new investment vehicle called the "Natural Asset Company (NAC)," created by the Intrinsic Exchange Group (IEG) in partnership with the NYSE and supported by organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund. NACs are designed to allow elite investors and governments to profit from protecting natural resources linked to climate crisis policies, including the 30x30 agenda, net-zero, and decarbonization, but some argue that their objective is more about political and financial control of global natural resources, especially in the United States, prompting calls for immediate congressional oversight.
American Stewards of Liberty (ASL) released a document calling for immediate Congressional oversight of the recent SEC proposed rule to approve the creation of a new investment vehicle called "Natural Asset Companies" (NAC).
The SEC's proposed rule permits federal lands, including national parks, to become part of Natural Asset Companies (NACs) and grants these NACs substantial "management authority." The Biden Administration is actively working to include federal lands in NACs. Under the SEC's proposed rule, foreign interests can create and invest in NACs, and land trusts can profit by enrolling conservation easements in these entities. Additionally, exclusive rights to natural processes will be monetized and assigned to NACs, with a clear prioritization of resource protection over human flourishing.
The proposed SEC rule grants NAC corporate boards "management authority" over all NAC assets, including federal lands, raising constitutional concerns about private entities overseeing lands within Congress's jurisdiction. The SEC rule defines "Natural Asset Companies" as having the authority to manage areas for conservation, restoration, or sustainable management, which may limit productive uses for human well-being. Additionally, the rule outlines "Ecological Performance Rights" as encompassing the value of natural assets and ecosystem service production with management authority granted to NACs. This management authority extends to private lands, conservation easements, and state lands under NAC control.
The Biden Administration is preparing to enroll federal lands into NACs, using the UN-established natural capital accounting standards to value natural processes and ecosystem services. Their "National Strategy to Develop Statistics for Environmental Economic Decisions" creates "Natural Capital Accounts (NACs)" to quantify the economic value of nature alongside traditional assets, aiming to guide sustainable growth, climate stability, and environmental health.
The Biden Administration is collecting extensive data on natural resources, protected areas, and farming operations through initiatives like the 30x30 program and USDA farm surveys, with non-compliance considered a legal violation. The data collection on natural assets, processes, and ecosystem services aims to use these as collateral to increase national debt and introduce new taxation methods while forming the basis for an investment product.
Federal land management agencies, through proposed conservation rules, are facilitating the inclusion of federal lands into NACs by eliminating productive uses and increasing protected areas. This aligns with the Biden Administration's efforts to conserve, restore, and sustainably manage lands, a prerequisite for establishing NACs.
The SEC Proposed Rule allows foreign interests, like China, to create and invest in NACs that hold rights to U.S. federal lands, potentially granting them influence over land use and profits from its protection. The New York Stock Exchange's manual language, included in the SEC's rule, welcomes foreign private issuers, permitting foreign investors to hold shares in or create NACs with no apparent restrictions on foreign nations' involvement in NACs.
The proposal also includes that land trusts, along with federal agencies, can enroll conservation easements into NACs for profit, potentially without landowner consent. This encompasses federal conservation easements like those funded through the Farm Bill, such as the Wetlands Reserve Program and the Agriculture Conservation Easement Program.
ASL asserts that exclusive rights to essential natural processes, like clean air and clean water, are being monetized and granted to NACs, potentially raising concerns about access to these vital resources. NACs prioritize the conservation and sustainable management of natural assets over human well-being, even more so than food production. Extractive activities like mining and industrial agriculture are explicitly prohibited, emphasizing the protection of resources.
In their document, American Stewards of Liberty encourages individuals to call for congressional oversight hearings on the SEC proposed rule; sign a letter to the SEC led by Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) inquiring into the rationale and authority for the SEC’s proposed rule; prohibit any funds from being used to carry out the “National Strategy to Develop Statistics for Environmental Economic Decisions;” require the Biden Administration to withdraw from the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting— Ecosystem Accounting Framework (SEEA EA).
