One week after 13 Republican state attorneys general asked federal energy officials to consider blocking Vanguard Group from buying utility stocks because of its relationships with anti-coal and anti-natural gas activists, the Malvern, Pennsylvania-based investment giant has pulled out of an international group committed to reducing net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.
Last year, Vanguard joined Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM), which advocates replacing fossil fuels with energy sources less likely to contribute to climate change, amid protests by investors pressing the company to stop investing in fossil fuel stocks and to demand energy companies find alternatives.
Vanguard quit the group because joining had caused "confusion" about whether Vanguard would end up dumping energy stocks from its popular stock-index funds, the company said.
