Michigan Sues Big Oil for Secretly Killing EVs and Solar Since 1979
Michigan Sues Big Oil for Secretly Killing EVs and Solar Since 1979When your state’s AG basically says “you’ve been running a cartel since disco was cool” — and brings receipts
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has filed the first-ever antitrust climate lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute — alleging a 45-year conspiracy to suppress electric vehicles and renewable energy, costing consumers billions.
Filed in U.S. District Court, the suit uses federal and state antitrust law (not the usual consumer fraud angle) to argue Big Oil literally bought, buried, and sued clean tech out of existence. The DOJ tried to preemptively block it. A judge threw them out. This thing is still alive.
🧩 Dumb Mode Dictionary
| Term | Translation |
|---|---|
| Antitrust lawsuit | When you sue a company (or five) for colluding to crush competition instead of, you know, competing |
| API | American Petroleum Institute — the oil industry’s main lobbying group, not the thing you call with fetch() |
| Capture-and-kill | Buying a competitor’s patent then doing absolutely nothing with it, on purpose |
| NiMH battery | Nickel-metal hydride — the battery tech Chevron sat on for nearly a decade |
| Motion to dismiss | The legal equivalent of “this meeting could have been an email” — defendants asking the judge to throw it out |
| Discovery | The phase where lawyers get to dig through your internal emails — aka the part companies are terrified of |
| Liability shield | Proposed legislation that would make it illegal to even sue oil companies for this stuff |
📖 The Backstory: One of the Most Successful Antitrust Conspiracies in US History
Honestly, the complaint reads like a corporate thriller script. Here’s the timeline:
- 1979: An internal Exxon study concluded renewables needed to hit 50% of global energy by 2010 to keep warming “relatively safe.” That same year, API created a CO2 and Climate Task Force — which Michigan alleges became the coordination hub for suppressing clean energy.
- 1970s–80s: Exxon, BP, Chevron, and Shell were market leaders in solar. They controlled much of the photovoltaics sector. Then they allegedly dismantled it together — abandoned ventures, seized patents, used litigation to scare off newcomers.
- Early 1980s: Exxon developed lithium-ion battery tech and hybrid vehicles. Then stopped. Obtained EV charging station patents as late as 2009. Never deployed any of it.
The complaint calls this “one of the most successful antitrust conspiracies in United States history.” Which, okay but seriously — if even half of this is true, that’s an insane sentence to read in a federal filing.
🔋 The Chevron-Toyota Battery Saga
This one’s the poster child for the whole suit. Here’s the sequence:
- Toyota released the RAV4 EV commercially in 1998
- Consumer market launch planned for 2001
- Chevron buys Texaco in 2000, inherits 125 NiMH battery patents
- Chevron immediately sues Toyota and Panasonic for patent infringement
- Settlement effectively delays commercial battery availability until 2010
That’s a 9-year delay on EV battery tech. Not because the tech didn’t work. Because a fossil fuel company bought the patents and lawyered everyone into submission. It’s like if Netflix bought Blockbuster and then locked all the DVDs in a warehouse. Except, you know, with planetary consequences.
📊 The Numbers
| What | How Much |
|---|---|
| Defendants | ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell, API |
| Conspiracy start date (alleged) | 1979 |
| NiMH patents Chevron sat on | 125 |
| Years of EV battery delay | ~9 |
| Consumer overcharges alleged | Billions (USD) |
| States with pending climate lawsuits | 11+ |
| States/localities total with climate suits | 36+ |
| Trump DOJ preemptive lawsuit status | Dismissed by Judge Beckering, Jan 30, 2026 |
🗣️ What Both Sides Are Saying
Michigan AG Dana Nessel:
“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.”
“My office will not be bullied.”
ExxonMobil:
“This is 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 Ryan Meyers:
“We continue to believe that energy policy belongs in Congress, not a patchwork of courtrooms.”
NYU Antitrust Professor Eleanor Fox:
“It sounds to me very credible that the oil industry had and has these collaborations. If they did and do, it is a serious social problem.”
Vermont Law’s Pat Parenteau:
“Surviving a motion to dismiss is the ball game. If they can get past that, get into discovery, get to trial, then they’ve got a shot.”
Translation: if this case survives the first legal hurdle, oil companies have to open their internal emails to lawyers. And that’s the part that keeps executives up at night.
⚖️ Why This Lawsuit Is Different
Every other state climate lawsuit (and there are dozens) has gone the consumer fraud / public nuisance route — basically “you lied about climate change.” Michigan’s doing something nobody’s tried at the state level: pure antitrust.
The argument isn’t “you lied.” It’s “you colluded to destroy your competition.”
That’s a different legal framework with different proof requirements, different precedents, and (importantly) different potential damages. Antitrust violations can carry treble damages — triple the actual harm.
And there’s a hack-for-hire angle too. Michigan’s suit is the first to allege that oil industry operatives hired surveillance firms to target climate activists, linked to DCI Group (Exxon’s lobbying arm), currently under federal investigation.
🏛️ The Political Counterpunch
The fossil fuel industry isn’t just fighting in court. They’re trying to change the rules entirely:
- Trump’s DOJ preemptively sued Michigan to block the filing. A judge tossed it.
- Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) is drafting federal legislation to shield oil companies from all state climate lawsuits
- 11 Republican state AGs asked DOJ to push for an industry “liability shield” — similar to what gun manufacturers have
- API made blocking “extreme climate liability policy” its top 2026 priority
- The model legislation has been linked to Leonard Leo (the guy who picked three Supreme Court justices)
So yeah. The counterattack isn’t “we’re innocent.” It’s “make it illegal to sue us.”
Cool. Big Oil’s been running a patent graveyard since 1979. Now What the Hell Do We Do? ಠ_ಠ
🔍 Hustle #1: Track the Patent Graveyard
Dive into patent databases (Google Patents, USPTO, Espacenet) and build a public tracker of clean energy patents held by fossil fuel companies that were never commercialized. There’s a whole research niche here for data journalists, academics, and indie devs.
Example: A data journalism student in Berlin, Germany built a searchable database of dormant EV-related patents held by oil majors using USPTO bulk data + Python scripts. The project got picked up by a German news outlet and landed them a paid research fellowship. Total cost: hosting fees.
Timeline: 2–4 weeks for MVP scraper + database, ongoing for coverage
💰 Hustle #2: Energy Cost Comparison Tools
Michigan’s whole argument hinges on consumer overcharges. Build a tool that lets people compare what they pay for energy vs. what they’d pay with renewables — factoring in subsidies, local rates, and equipment costs. Local governments and advocacy groups will pay for this.
Example: A freelance dev in São Paulo, Brazil built a solar savings calculator for the Brazilian market using public utility rate data. Licensed it to three solar installation companies at $200/month each. $600 MRR within 6 months.
📝 Hustle #3: Antitrust Litigation Monitoring Dashboard
There are 36+ climate lawsuits pending against oil companies across the US, plus related antitrust cases (like the BlackRock coal case). Nobody’s tracking all of them in one place with real-time updates. Build the dashboard. Charge law firms, journalists, and advocacy orgs.
Example: A paralegal-turned-coder in Toronto, Canada built a PACER scraper that tracked pharmaceutical patent litigation. Sold subscriptions to boutique law firms at $99/month. Hit $2,400 MRR in the first year.
⚡ Hustle #4: Right-to-Repair Meets Clean Energy
The “capture-and-kill” strategy doesn’t just apply to EVs. There’s a whole ecosystem of suppressed or patent-blocked clean tech. Create content (blog, newsletter, YouTube) documenting these cases. Monetize through sponsorships from clean energy companies.
Example: A content creator in Nairobi, Kenya started a newsletter covering suppressed green tech patents across Africa. Hit 8,000 subscribers in 10 months, then signed a sponsorship deal with a regional solar company worth $1,500/month.
🛠️ Hustle #5: FOIA Request Automation for Climate Activists
Michigan’s case references hack-for-hire operations against climate activists. Activists and journalists need FOIA tools to dig up government communications with oil lobbyists. Build a template-based FOIA request generator focused on energy policy and lobbying.
Example: An open-source dev in Kraków, Poland built MuckRock-style FOIA automation for EU transparency requests. Got grant funding from a European press freedom foundation — €15,000 initial grant, plus ongoing donations.
🛠️ Follow-Up Actions
| Step | Action | Tool/Resource |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Read the full Michigan complaint | Michigan AG press release |
| 2 | Search dormant clean energy patents | Google Patents, USPTO bulk data |
| 3 | Track all pending climate lawsuits | Climate Case Chart |
| 4 | Monitor legislative shield attempts | OpenSecrets for API lobbying spending |
| 5 | Join climate accountability communities | r/climate, r/energy, Climate Investigations Center |
Quick Hits
| Want… | Do… |
|---|---|
 See the suppressed patents |
Search Google Patents for EV + charging patents assigned to ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell |
 Track the lawsuit |
Follow Climate Case Chart — they index every pending state climate case |
 Understand the money |
API spent $13M+ on lobbying in 2025 alone — check OpenSecrets |
 Read the legal analysis |
Inside Climate News has the best breakdown of the antitrust theory |
 Protect yourself as an activist |
Michigan’s suit alleges hack-for-hire targeting — use E2EE and OpSec basics |
Forty-five years of buying patents and burying them. But sure, tell me again how the free market works.
!