US corporate transparency legislation: Lifting the veil

The oil industry is worried that new US corporate-transparency legislation will undermine the EITI and its strategy of good governance

As the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) nears its 10th anniversary, the mechanism is unwittingly at the centre of a war of words over how best to ensure financial transparency in the resources sector. The dispute centres on new legislation in the US, which demands more transparency from companies than even the EITI requires – and oil companies don't like it. Shell chief executive Peter Voser and Yves-Louis Darricarrere, the head of Total's exploration and production unit, both claim the legislation – the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which passed into law last year – could undermine, or even threaten, the EITI's approach to transparency and go