Michigan AG Nessel plans to sue oil and gas companies over Michigan's changing climate

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Lansing — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Thursday her intention to sue the fossil fuel industry for its role in changing Michigan’s climate and threatening the state's recreational heritage.

The oil and gas industry profited while knowingly selling products that cause climate change, Nessel’s office said in a document disclosing the coming lawsuits. The industry also deceived the public about climate change, Nessel alleged, leaving the state with the expenses of adapting to and recovering from the effects of warming.

"Warmer temperatures are shrinking ski seasons in the (Upper Peninsula) and disrupting the wonderful blooms of Holland's Tulip Time Festival," Nessel said in a statement. "Severe weather events are on the rise. These impacts threaten not only our way of life but also our economy and pose long-term risks to Michigan's thriving agribusiness. The fossil fuel industry, despite knowing about these consequences, prioritized profits over people and the environment."

States such as Minnesota, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island have filed climate fraud lawsuits against oil and gas companies, alleging petroleum products played a central role in contributing to the climate crisis.

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Under Nessel's plan to sue the fossil fuel industry, the private lawyers would serve as special assistant attorneys general.

In her request for a special assistant attorney general, Nessel’s office laid out some of the ways climate change impacts Michigan, such as fueling harmful algal blooms, welcoming invasive and disease-bearing pests, warmer temperatures, volatile weather, drought and more. Those issues cost Michigan money as the state responds to severe weather events, damages to state-owned properties and infrastructure and increased public health costs.

“The fossil fuel industry was aware of the negative impacts of extraction and use of fossil fuels, but continued to knowingly engage in business practices and conduct that harmed the public’s health, safety, and welfare and the environment,” the Attorney General’s office wrote in its request for a special assistant attorney general. “The fossil fuel industry also hid information and deceived the public and consumers, both in and outside of Michigan, about the role of their products in causing the global climate crisis.”

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