The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have filed a “Statement of Interest” in a multi-state litigation that accuses asset managers BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard of conspiring to restrict coal production, the FTC said in a May 22 statement.
A “Statement of Interest” is typically used by government entities to express their perspective in a legal argument without formally intervening in the suit.
The lawsuit was initially filed on Nov. 27 last year in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division, by 11 states led by Texas.
In the complaint, the states alleged that BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard acquired “substantial stockholdings in every significant publicly held coal producer in the United States” over several years, thus gaining enough power to control company policies, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said in a statement at the time….