Today: The Science Based Targets initiative is accused of engaging in anticompetitive behavior that is hurting U.S. businesses; PepsiCo charges ahead with electric big rigs; Orsted sues Trump administration.

Welcome back: Republican attorneys general across the U.S. are looking to stymie corporate climate action, setting up investigations into a number of key reporting and target setting groups, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business's Yusuf Khan reports.

Last month, 23 attorneys general led by Iowa AG Brenna Bird, wrote a letter to the Science Based Targets initiative, a British charity that validates climate goals for companies the world over, arguing that it is engaging in anticompetitive behavior that is hurting U.S. businesses and consumers in their states.

The Iowa letter followed similar correspondence sent to the SBTi in late July by the Florida attorney general, James Uthmeier, who issued a subpoena to investigate whether the organization and one of its founding partners violated state consumer protection or antitrust laws by “coercing companies into disclosing proprietary data and paying for access under the guise of environmental transparency.”

In the past 12 months, numerous Republican attorneys general have sought to hobble the environmental sector through expensive legal action, accusing groups that have led the movement such as Ceres, Climate Action 100+ and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero of collusion, acting as a cartel and exhibiting antitrust behavior.

• Investors should be free to invest for whatever reasons motivate them, including those that might be perceived by some as ideological. (Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance)
• Ken Paxton's attack on investors is climate change denial, not conservatism. Market-based approaches are better than government mandates from left or right. (Fox News)
• A preliminary injunction has halted the enforcement of Texas’ latest anti-ESG law. (ESG Dive)

Orsted cut its full-year earnings guidance on Friday following lower-than-normal offshore wind speeds during July and August, a day after it filed a court challenge to a U.S. stop-work order on a major project off the east coast, Dominic Chopping reports for WSJ Pro Sustainable Business.

The Danish renewable-energy company said the lower wind speeds across its offshore portfolio will impact earnings by around 1.2 billion Danish kroner ($187.3 million) this year. A construction delay at the Greater Changhua 2b offshore wind farm in Taiwan will also hit earnings by around 300 million kroner, it said.

The news comes after Orsted began legal action against the Trump administration Thursday as it seeks to restart construction of an offshore wind farm that was halted by the government last month.

The company was ordered by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to stop work on its nearly complete Revolution Wind project, a joint venture with Global Infrastructure Partners' Skyborn Renewables, that is being built off the coast of Rhode Island.

• Orsted Shares Tumble After U.S. Issues Stop-Work Order
• Equinor Takes Near $1 Billion Hit From Trump Flip-Flop on Wind

The Trump administration this year delivered a series of blows against efforts to push the transportation industry toward clean fuels. It is revoking incentives for battery-electric vehicles, pulling back on federal emissions regulations and challenging California’s power to regulate trucking.

Adam Buttgenbach, the director of fleet engineering and sustainability at PepsiCo, says there is still a sound business case for zero-emission trucks as the costs and challenges of operating the big rigs come down.

Buttgenbach runs more than 1,750 electric vehicles in PepsiCo’s fleet, including more than 100 battery-electric semi-trucks from Daimler Truck North America, Volvo and Tesla.

In an interview with the WSJ Logistics Report's Paul Berger, Buttgenbach shares what PepsiCo has learned from running the trucks in its operations, including whether it is cheaper to charge a battery-electric truck than to fill up a diesel truck, and the company's use of the Tesla Semi. 

• Record EV Sales Drive Auto Market Ahead of Credit End
• Rivian Lays Off Workers as It Preps Launch of Cheaper SUV

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• Food prices hold broadly steady in August, UN says. (WSJ)
   
• Netflix signs 15-year carbon credit deal to help landowners transition fields into forests. (ESG Today)
   
• Microsoft extends dominance of carbon removal market. (FT)
   
• Investing in disaster preparedness pays off ahead of extreme weather. (Dow Jones Risk Journal) 
   
• U.S. weighs tariffs if global ship emissions charges are approved. (Bloomberg)
   
• Wildfires blaze across California Gold Country, ravage historic town. (Reuters)
   
• EU climate regulations uncertainty continues ahead of omnibus discussions. (Dow Jones Risk Journal) (Dow Jones Risk Journal)
   
• Humans are altering the seas. Here’s what the future ocean might look like. (NYT)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at wsjperry, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.