A letter signed by 22 state attorneys general on Wednesday warned a group of leading financial firms that its commitment to achieving “global net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner” may be evidence of collusion and could violate federal and state antitrust and consumer protection laws.
The Republican attorneys general sent the public letter to the Net Zero Financial Service Providers Alliance, or NZFSPA, a consortium of industry-leading financial firms, including Bloomberg, Deloitte, Ernst & Young (EY), KPMG, Moody’s, PWC, Morningstar, and S&P Global, with the shared mission of limiting “the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.”
To achieve the goal, the signatories have vowed to “align all relevant services and products to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions,” to “build internal capability to understand the risks and opportunities of the net zero transition,” and to “consistently raise with our key stakeholders the importance and implications of setting net zero targets and strategies,” according to the alliance.
Led by Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti, the letter said that while the NZFSPA signatories “are direct competitors with each other, they nevertheless commit to using their market influence to enforce their collective climate agenda in the broader economy and to ‘[w]ork in coordination’ with other UN-convened ‘Net Zero’ groups.”
“Given the extraordinary market power of participants in the agreement, many companies may have no choice but to comply with your policy preferences, requiring them to restrict further the variety and output of goods and services that are not ‘aligned’ with your activist climate agenda,” the letter states. “Moreover, many of the companies you influence will be forced to stop dealing with other companies whose practices are inconsistent with your standards.”
The attorneys general requested NZFSPA share internal communications between the firms “related to your commitments” as well as “any actions you have taken to ‘halve global emissions by 2030,’ or establish a ‘zero carbon world.'”
“If financial service providers are colluding to limit consumer choices and manipulate market outcomes in support of international climate activists, that could violate our antitrust and consumer protection laws,” Skrmetti said in a statement provided to National Review. “Decisions about energy policy should be made by our elected representatives, not by transnational corporate alliances.”
Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, applauded the letter, saying it advanced the “important work defending consumers from yet another net zero conspiracy.”
“Financial services providers must understand that no matter what virtue signaling label they slap on it, collusion between members of an industry to drive up costs for Americans is immoral and illegal,” Hild said in a prepared statement. “We hope this letter will wake up members of the alliance to finally realize the massive potential liabilities of their behavior.”
The letter was signed by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
They requested NZFSPA signatories respond to their request by October 13.