News & Analysis
January 23, 2026
Michigan is suing four Big Oil companies and their largest trade association in federal court for conspiring to limit energy options and drive up costs for consumers, ultimately functioning as a “fossil fuel cartel.” In a filing today, Michigan accused ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, and the American Petroleum Institute of choking out renewable energy competitors to illegally gain dominance over the market, fueling the energy affordability crisis while concealing the climate harms of their products.
“At its heart, this is a case that is squarely about energy affordability, to combat the affordability crisis that we’re seeing in Michigan right now,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told a local news outlet. “It’s our firm belief that fossil fuel companies conspired together to restrain trade and to limit competition in violation of federal and state antitrust laws, and in doing so they drove up energy costs and limited energy options for Michigan consumers.”
Nessel first announced her intent to file a climate accountability case against Big Oil companies in 2024, highlighting the fossil fuel industry’s impact on the state’s economy, agriculture, and way of life. In an unprecedented move, the Trump administration sued Michigan and Hawaiʻi in 2025 over both of the states’ planned lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry, a move Nessel called “frivolous and arguably sanctionable.” Hawaiʻi filed its climate accountability lawsuit against oil companies the following day.
“I remain undeterred in my intention to file this lawsuit the President and his Big Oil donors so fear," Nessel said in 2025. She added that “perhaps if [Big Oil companies] are desperate enough to request this unprecedented preemptive intervention, they are more concerned over our potential claims than they have led on.”
Michigan is the first state in the U.S. to charge the fossil fuel industry with conspiring to create an energy monopoly. The state’s case highlights the industry’s long history of deception that delayed investments in cleaner, cheaper forms of energy.
“Michigan’s groundbreaking case reveals how the Big Oil cartel conspired to deny Americans cleaner and cheaper energy choices and make life less affordable by keeping consumers hooked on their dirty fossil fuel products,” CCI President Richard Wiles said in a statement. “Eleven states and dozens of municipalities are now fighting to put Big Oil companies on trial for their climate lies and make them pay for the harm they’ve caused.”
Michigan’s lawsuit comes as the fossil fuel industry is lobbying Congress for legal immunity from laws and lawsuits that aim to hold the industry accountable for its decades of climate lies that have fueled climate damages throughout the country. Just last week, API, a defendant in Michigan’s case and others, announced that stopping state climate lawsuits is a top priority for the oil lobby in 2026.
“Big Oil is desperate to keep the evidence of their climate lies from juries in cases like Michigan’s, and that’s why the fossil fuel industry is now lobbying Congress for a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Wiles said. “Congress must protect the right of the people of Michigan and every state to hold Big Oil accountable for the harm their climate lies have caused.”
