One thing that goes along with this is the idea that possible courses of action in any given situation can be sorted according to moral desirability. Of course in practice people differ about the exact ordering. But I've never heard anyone claim that in the moral sphere, B > A, C > B and simultaneously A > C. If in a moral scheme, you always find that A > B > C implies A > C, then you ought to be able to map to a utility function.
The only thing I'd add is that this doesn't map onto a materialist consequentialism. If you were part of the crew of a spacecraft unavoidably crashing into the Sun, with no power left and no communications - is there still a moral way to behave - when nothing you do will show in the material world in an hour or so? Many moral theories would hold so, but there isn't a material consequence as such...
is there still a moral way to behave - when nothing you do will show in the material world in an hour or so?
Suppose the universe has an inescapable Big Crunch or Heat Death ahead - is there a moral way to behave, when nothing you do will show in the material world in a googolplex years or so?
Either way the answer is yes: all the materialist consequentialists need is a utility functional which has support at all times t rather than just at t_infinity.
This was demonstrated, in a certain limited way, in Peterson (2009). See also Lowry & Peterson (2011).
The Peterson result provides an "asymmetry argument" in favor of consequentialism:
Another argument in favor of consequentialism has to do with the causes of different types of moral judgments: see Are Deontological Moral Judgments Rationalizations?
Update: see Carl's criticism.