AG Nessel filed a federal antitrust lawsuit (PDF) 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. The Attorney General 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. This has caused Michigan residents to suffer artificially high home and transportation energy costs. Michigan consumers remain locked in transportation and energy markets that rely on dated and expensive technologies, and lack renewable, cost-efficient energy sources because defendants have illegally conspired to suppress the conditions for their deployment and adoption, eliminating consumer choice and worsening the energy affordability crisis facing the people of Michigan. 

“Michigan is facing an energy affordability crisis as our home energy costs skyrocket and consumers are left without affordable options for transportation. Whether you own a home, a small business, or run a large corporation, rising energy and transportation costs harm everyone. These out-of-control costs are not the result of natural economic inflation, but due to the greed of these corporations who prioritized their own profit and marketplace dominance over competition and consumer savings.” – AG Nessel