Last week, during his confirmation hearing to serve as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler said his agency would consider requiring public companies to disclose their political expenditures. If it happens, climate activists say it would finally force companies to answer to investors and regulators not only about the risk that climate change poses to their profit margins, but also about their own roles in funding the politicians and political groups blocking climate action.

The implications for the climate movement are major. All too often, businesses have flaunted media-friendly environmental policies while using dark-money channels to quietly fund politicians and groups actively working to suppress climate action. It hasn’t seemed to matter that bankrolling climate change denialism doesn’t just hurt the environment, but could also end up undermining their long-term bottom lines. With no obligation to ever go public about such shady political moves, there’s never been a pressing incentive for corporations to stop subsidizing regressive political players and their disastrous climate stances.

Now, if the SEC moves forward with the political contribution disclosure rule, companies would finally have to come clean about how they’ve been secretly funding the fight against climate action.