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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on Jan. 23 the filing of a federal antitrust lawsuit against BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute alleging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, and the Michigan Antitrust Reform Act.
She alleges the defendants acted as a cartel in an unlawful conspiracy in restraint of trade to forestall meaningful competition from renewable energy in order to maintain their dominance in the transportation energy market and primary energy markets in Michigan and nationally in order to reap windfall, and illegal, profits.
Filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, the lawsuit alleges decades of coordinated efforts by defendants and other co-conspirators to:
- abandon renewable energy products,
- use patent manipulation and litigation to hinder market competitors,
- suppress information concerning the once-hidden costs of fossil fuels and the viability of alternatives,
- infiltrate and knowingly mislead information-producing institutions,
- surveil and intimidate watchdogs and public officials, and
- use trade associations to coordinate market-wide efforts to divert capital expenditures away from renewable energy
- —all to further one of the most successful and lucrative antitrust conspiracies in the history of the United States.
The defendants have, Nessel alleges, reduced the production of renewable energy for transportation and home heating and cooling and needlessly reduced choices and inflated energy prices for Michigan consumers.
In May 2024, the Nessel’s office began seeking proposals from attorneys and law firms to serve as Special Assistant Attorneys General to pursue litigation related to the climate change impacts caused by the fossil fuel industry on behalf of the People of Michigan.
Later that year, the Department announced that the law firms Sher Edling LLP, DiCello Levitt LLP, and Hausfeld LLP would work together for this purpose.
