The SEC has voted to implement a new rule which will require U.S. oil and mining companies to disclose any payments made to foreign governments, despite a decade-long campaign by oil companies to avoid such rules, reports the Houston Chronicle. However, some anti-corruption groups say the rule will do more harm than good, as it requires over-all spending reports, not a project-by-project outline.
“It will set the world back years in the effort to fight corruption in the oil and mining industries,” said Kathleen Brophy, U.S. director of the nonprofit Publish What You Pay. “It’s part of a slew of other midnight rules the Trump administration is trying to push through.”