A coalition of Republican attorneys general, led by the state of Florida, said Wednesday that a major climate group may be violating their states’ antitrust and consumer protection laws by artificially pressuring companies to adopt climate activist policies, according to a letter obtained by The Daily Wire.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier warned the Boston-based nonprofit organization Ceres that it may be illegally pressuring companies to adopt net-zero policies. He said the organization was pursuing policies that were an “assault on American families and businesses.”
“Ceres’ efforts to artificially move entire markets and sectors — and in turn artificially change the output and quality of the goods and services produced by those sectors — toward Ceres’ own preferred policy goals bears all the trappings of the ‘adverse, anticompetitive effects’ that antitrust laws seek to prevent,” the attorneys general wrote in the letter.
Ceres is an advocacy group that says it is “working to accelerate the transition to a cleaner, more just, and resilient world.” In emails obtained by the House Judiciary Committee, it has described its work as “the Army ground troops” and “an ‘air cover’ strategic and silent bombing campaign by a newly funded division of the Air Force” fighting a war for net zero emissions.
The group wants to “transform industries” and works to “engage with companies in key economic sectors to ratchet up the ambition of their climate goals, create robust transition action plans, and improve disclosure.”
In the realm of banking, Ceres wants to “reduce their exposure to fossil fuel and high-carbon assets and to increase transition financing of Paris-aligned companies and projects.”
Ceres was also influential in the formation of Climate Action 100+, an organization that pressures the “world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters [to] take appropriate action on climate change in order to mitigate financial risk and to maximize the long-term value of assets.”
The Republican officials said that Ceres’ “approach depends on collusive action to pressure companies” and that it “coordinates pressure on financial actors and companies through ‘stakeholder engagement,’ shareholder resolutions, and even ‘investor campaigns to replace directors.’”
Uthmeier told The Daily Wire that a barage of anti-trust actions could be result if it does not abandon its “assualt on American families and businesses.”
“Failure to do so will result in a multi-state barrage of anti-trust enforcement,” he said.
They requested that Ceres respond to their letter with an explanation of how their actions adhere to consumer protection and antitrust laws. Other states that signed on to the letter included Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
The action was praised by Consumers’ Research Executive Director Will Hild and American Energy Institute Founder Jason Isaac.
“Ceres is a leader of the climate cartel and exploits its ever-growing network to push radical political agendas and ESG policies on companies and organizations, pressuring them to ignore their fiduciary duty, engage in shareholder activism, and adopt radical climate and net-zero goals,” Hild told The Daily Wire.
Isaac accused Ceres of manipulating the market and attempting to suppress competition.
“Attorney General Uthmeier’s letter puts a spotlight on what Ceres really is, the ringleader of a coordinated climate cartel operating behind closed doors,” he said. “Ceres uses dark money and collusive pressure campaigns to steer capital, punish lawful American industries, and force companies to adopt radical climate agendas they would never choose on their own.”