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“What these "activists" have figured out is that any radical policy that they can’t get enacted through government can be advanced through corporate America by hijacking trillions of dollars in voting rights from everyday Americans’ retirement accounts,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) stated.

According to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, “Consumers across our country are already feeling the sting of skyrocketing electricity bills, and Vanguard’s request to extend its authorization, coupled with its commitment to imposing net-zero requirements on publicly traded utilities, would only increase those costs.”

These FERC decisions come on the heels of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in which the courts stated that the EPA did not have the authority to force America’s utilities to transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy. This decision was in line with the “major questions doctrine,” which states that policies of major importance to Americans must be decided by elected representatives in Congress so that citizens can have a voice in such matters.

As has often been the case in recent years, activist corporations often succeed in imposing a progressive agenda, where federal agencies fail. BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street are the world’s largest asset managers, controlling approximately $20 trillion in investors’ money through index funds and pension plans. They are also partners in global movements to transition from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy, joining clubs such as the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAM), Ceres, and Climate Action 100+.

Asset managers who are members of NZAM pledge to “implement a stewardship and engagement strategy, with a clear escalation and voting policy, that is consistent with our ambition for all assets under management to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 or sooner”—in short, to use their voting power to compel all companies whose shares they own to transition away from fossil fuels.

“These targets come out of the Paris Accord, which couldn’t even get passed through a Democratic Senate,” Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, told The Epoch Times. “Voters have rejected these net-zero by 2050 goals over and over again. So now we’re seeing this, in my opinion, illegitimate attempt to use corporate America to push these goals.”

But according to Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, the protest by state attorneys general was nothing more than “political theater.”

“These AGs are running for political office, and this is a fundraising opportunity,” Slocum told The Epoch Times. “I guarantee you that we’re going to see fundraising emails from these AGs to various donor databases [stating], ’Look where we’re taking it to these big liberal institutions, and we’ve got your back on fighting against capitalism or whatever.’ Such nonsense!”