Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti led a coalition of 22 state attorneys general in a letter warning the Net Zero Financial Service Providers Alliance (NZFSPA) that their “coordinated commitments may violate state and federal antitrust and consumer protection laws.”
NZFSPA, according to its website, is a “global group of Financial Service Providers committed to supporting the goal of global net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner, in line with the ambition to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.”
Skrmetti’s office notes that the alliance is a cooperative syndicate of financial service firms, including “index providers, auditors, stock exchanges[,] and research, rating and data providers.”
In the letter sent this week, the group of attorneys general highlighted that many NZFSPA signatories are direct competitors, yet the signatories “commit to using their market influence to enforce their collective climate agenda.”
“These pressure tactics are backed up by substantial market power,” the attorneys general added, noting that the NZFSPA’s coordination “may run afoul of United States antitrust law and its state equivalents.”
Further, the attorneys general alleged that the “substantial commitments of NZFSPA signatories do not appear consistent with laws protecting consumers.”
By aligning their products and services with the Paris Agreement’s exacting specifications, the companies are “necessarily acting to artificially restrict the supply of goods and services,” according to the attorneys general, which, the coalition adds, “restrains trade, inhibits innovation, suppresses output, and harms consumers.”
The coalition of attorneys general concluded by calling on the NZFSPA to provide additional information to help states “better understand their commitments and related policies” in light of their concerns.
“Consumers (including businesses) who purchase your “aligned” products and services should not be misled about the faulty basis for that alignment or the impact of your efforts,” the coalition added.
In a separate statement, Tennessee’s Skrmetti said, “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. Decisions about energy policy should be made by our elected representatives, not by transnational corporate alliances.”
Skrmetti requested that NZFSPA respond to his letter by October 13.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
