Michigan Calls Big Oil a “Cartel” That Killed EVs for 40 Years
Michigan Calls Big Oil a “Cartel” That Killed EVs for 40 YearsThe state isn’t suing over climate lies — it’s suing over antitrust. And that changes everything.
Michigan AG Dana Nessel filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute — alleging they ran a coordinated conspiracy to suppress EVs and renewable energy for decades.
Filed January 23 in federal District Court under the Sherman Antitrust Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act, and the Michigan Antitrust Reform Act. This isn’t another “you lied about climate change” lawsuit. It’s a monopoly case. And Congress is already scrambling to kill it.
🧩 Dumb Mode Dictionary
| Term | Translation |
|---|---|
| Sherman Antitrust Act | The 1890 law that says companies can’t team up to crush competition. Standard Oil got broken up under this one. |
| Capture-and-kill tactics | Buy a competitor’s tech, lock it in a drawer, sue anyone who tries something similar. Classic villain move. |
| NiMH battery patents | Nickel-metal hydride batteries — the tech that powered early EVs before lithium-ion. Chevron basically sat on these. |
| API (American Petroleum Institute) | The oil industry’s lobbying mothership. Named as a defendant here, which is spicy. |
| Federal preemption | When Congress passes a law that says “states can’t do this anymore.” The nuclear option against state lawsuits. |
| Climate superfund laws | New York and Vermont laws that make fossil fuel companies pay for climate damage, like how polluters pay for toxic waste cleanup. |
📖 The Backstory: Not Your Usual Climate Lawsuit
Honestly, every other state climate lawsuit has gone after oil companies for lying — claiming they knew about climate change and deceived consumers. Michigan is doing something different.
AG Dana Nessel is arguing this is a monopoly case. The allegation: these five defendants acted as a cartel, conspiring to keep renewable energy and EVs out of the market so they could keep charging whatever they wanted for fossil fuels.
- Not about deception — about anticompetitive behavior
- Not about emissions — about artificially inflated energy prices
- Filed in federal court under laws designed to bust monopolies
Nessel’s quote: “Michigan is facing an energy affordability crisis as our home energy costs skyrocket and consumers are left without affordable options for transportation. These out-of-control costs are not the result of natural economic inflation, but due to the greed of these corporations.”
The state hired Sher Edling LLP, DiCello Levitt LLP, and Hausfeld LLP on contingency — meaning the law firms only get paid if Michigan wins. That’s… a bold bet.
🔍 The Alleged Playbook: How Big Oil Killed the Competition
Okay but seriously, the specific allegations read like a corporate thriller script:
Exxon and the battery that never was:
- Exxon invented an early version of the lithium-ion battery
- Built market-ready hybrid vehicle prototypes in the late 1970s
- Then shelved the whole program in the early 1980s
Chevron’s patent hostage situation:
- In 2000, Texaco bought GM’s share in Ovonic (a battery company). Days later, Chevron bought Texaco.
- Chevron ended up controlling the NiMH battery patents through a joint venture called Cobasys
- Filed patent infringement suits against Panasonic and Toyota in 2001
- Settlement in 2004 included a ban on large-format NiMH batteries for certain transportation uses until 2010
- A gag order prevented Toyota from disclosing the details. Toyota was forced to kill the first-gen RAV4 EV.
The solar bait-and-switch:
- Oil companies were early developers of solar energy in the 1980s
- Then they abandoned those ventures and used litigation to deter new market entrants
Other alleged tactics:
- Refusing to install EV charging stations at retail gas stations
- Hiring hackers to “surveil, intimidate and disrupt” journalists and activists investigating them
📊 The Numbers
| Stat | Detail |
|---|---|
| Defendants | BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, American Petroleum Institute |
| Laws invoked | Sherman Act, Clayton Act, Michigan Antitrust Reform Act |
| Damages sought | Unspecified — tied to consumer overpayment for energy |
| NiMH patent ban duration | ~6 years (2004–2010) |
| Similar state lawsuits | ~12 other states have climate cases pending |
| Michigan’s approach | Only antitrust-based climate case filed so far |
| Legal fees | Contingency — firms only paid if Michigan wins |
🗣️ What Both Sides Are Saying
The oil companies are not thrilled:
Exxon called it “yet another legally incoherent effort to regulate by lawsuit. It won’t reduce emissions, it won’t help consumers, and it won’t stand up to the law.”
API’s general counsel Ryan Meyers: “This is baseless and part of a coordinated campaign against an industry that powers everyday life.” He added: “We continue to believe that energy policy belongs in Congress, not a patchwork of courtrooms.”
BP and Shell declined to comment. Chevron didn’t respond at all. (Silence speaks volumes, honestly.)
Legal experts say the antitrust angle is risky but could be significant if Michigan survives initial dismissal motions. The strategy avoids the usual climate-science debates entirely and instead focuses on market manipulation — something courts understand very well.
🚨 Meanwhile in Congress: The Kill Switch
And here’s where it gets really interesting. While Michigan is filing suit, Congress is working to make sure it doesn’t matter.
Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) — yes, from Wyoming, the coal and oil state — announced she’s “working with colleagues in both the House and Senate to craft legislation” that would:
- Preempt all state climate lawsuits against oil and gas companies
- Kill climate superfund laws like the ones in New York and Vermont
- Shield the entire fossil fuel industry from state-level accountability
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said he’d be “open to the proposal.”
This came weeks after the American Petroleum Institute (one of the defendants, remember) put “shielding companies from abusive state climate lawsuits” on its official 2026 policy agenda.
So: the industry is a defendant in the lawsuit and lobbying Congress to make the lawsuit illegal. That’s a move.
⚙️ Why the Antitrust Angle Matters
Honestly, this is what makes the Michigan case worth watching. Every other state has said “you lied about climate change.” That argument gets tangled in First Amendment issues, scientific debate framing, and preemption arguments.
Michigan is saying: “You broke antitrust law by conspiring to kill competition.”
That’s a fundamentally different legal theory:
- Courts have 130+ years of antitrust precedent
- The Sherman Act has teeth — treble damages (3x the actual harm)
- The argument doesn’t depend on proving climate science in court
- It reframes the issue as consumer harm from monopolistic behavior
The risk? Antitrust conspiracy cases are hard to prove. You need to show actual coordination, not just parallel behavior. And the oil industry has very expensive lawyers.
But if Michigan gets past the dismissal phase, discovery could be devastating. Imagine subpoenaing internal communications between Chevron and Texaco about those battery patents.
Cool. Oil Companies Might’ve Sat on the Future for 40 Years. Now What the Hell Do We Do? ( ͡ಠ ʖ̯ ͡ಠ)
⚡ Hustle 1: EV Charging Station Installer / Consultant
With oil companies allegedly refusing to put chargers at gas stations for decades, the EV charging market is wide open. Level 2 charger installations are in massive demand for businesses, apartments, and parking garages. Get EVITP-certified (Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program) and start contracting installs.
Example: A licensed electrician in Guadalajara, Mexico started an EV charger installation side business after getting certified online. Focused on hotels and Airbnbs catering to American tourists driving EVs across the border. Went from 2 installs/month to 14 within six months — pulling in ~$4,200/month net on top of his regular work.
Timeline: 4-6 weeks for certification, first paying client within 2 months
📊 Hustle 2: Energy Cost Audit Freelancer
Michigan’s lawsuit is literally about consumers overpaying for energy. Businesses and homeowners have no idea how much they’re bleeding on inefficient energy setups. Learn energy auditing (BPI certification or equivalent), buy a thermal camera, and start telling people where their money is going.
Example: A former HVAC tech in Manchester, UK pivoted to commercial energy audits using a $400 FLIR thermal camera and free OpenEnergyMonitor software. Targeted small restaurant chains — showed one owner they were losing £1,800/year through poorly insulated walk-in coolers. Now runs 8-10 audits/month at £350 each.
🔋 Hustle 3: Build a Patent Watch / Competitive Intelligence Newsletter
This whole case exists because companies bought patents and buried them. There’s a market for tracking patent activity in clean energy, batteries, and renewables — and flagging when big corps acquire and shelve promising tech. Investors, journalists, and activists would pay for this.
Example: A patent attorney in São Paulo, Brazil started a paid Substack tracking battery and solar patent acquisitions by major energy companies. Used Google Patents API and USPTO bulk data (both free). Hit 2,400 paid subscribers at $8/month within the first year — mostly VCs and clean energy fund managers wanting early signals.
💰 Hustle 4: Solar + Battery Comparison Platform for Your Country
Oil companies allegedly killed solar competition in the '80s. Now solar is booming but most countries outside the US have garbage comparison tools. Build a localized EnergySage-style platform for your market — aggregate installer quotes, battery specs, and government incentive data.
Example: A web developer in Lagos, Nigeria built a solar panel comparison site for West Africa using Next.js and a simple Airtable backend. Partnered with 30+ local installers who pay $50/month for listing. Gets 12K monthly visitors from SEO targeting “solar panel price [city name].” Revenue: ~$2,100/month and growing.
📝 Hustle 5: Antitrust / Regulatory Compliance Content Writer
This Michigan lawsuit is creating demand for explainer content. Law firms, clean energy companies, and industry publications need writers who can translate dense antitrust law into readable content. If you can make the Sherman Act sound interesting (it actually is — Standard Oil, price-fixing cartels, the whole history), there’s work.
Example: A freelance writer in Krakow, Poland who specialized in EU competition law started pitching US clean energy law firms after the Michigan filing. Landed three retainer clients writing blog posts and client alerts about state antitrust actions. Charges $0.25/word, averages 20K words/month — $5,000/month from a laptop.
🛠️ Follow-Up Actions
| Step | Action |
|---|---|
 Read the filing |
Michigan AG press release — free, public |
 Get EV-certified |
EVITP.org — the industry standard for EV charger installation |
 Learn energy auditing |
BPI.org — Building Performance Institute certification |
 Track the case |
Follow Inside Climate News coverage — they broke the deeper analysis |
 Monitor patent activity |
Google Patents + USPTO bulk data — both free |
 Watch Congress |
Hageman’s preemption bill could kill all state climate suits — track it on Congress.gov |
Quick Hits
| Want to… | Do this |
|---|---|
| Understand the case |
Read Inside Climate News breakdown — best deep analysis |
| See the actual complaint |
Michigan AG’s office published the full filing |
| Learn about the buried patents |
Wikipedia’s NiMH patent encumbrance page is a rabbit hole |
 Track the federal counter-move |
Common Dreams coverage on Hageman’s preemption legislation |
 Start an EV charging business |
PermitFlow guide — covers LLC setup, equipment, and incentives |
Exxon invented the lithium-ion battery and then buried it. Chevron bought the EV battery patents and locked them up. And now Congress wants to make it illegal to sue them for it. The future wasn’t delayed by physics — it was delayed by lawyers.
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