US Oil Industry Busted For History-Making Antitrust Conspiracy

---

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

Or support our Kickstarter campaign!

---

---

Sure, lawsuits against the US oil industry are a dime a dozen these days, but the latest chapter in the ever-evolving saga of climate litigation is particularly spicy because it aims to call oil companies and their trade organizations to account for almost 50 years of unlawful restraint-of-trade activity, exposing them to penalties under the federal Sherman Antitrust Act and the Clayton Antitrust Act, and the Michigan Antitrust Reform Act, to boot.

Trump Admin. Seeks To Head Climate Litigation Off At The Pass

Until now, most state-based climate lawsuits have focused on the oil industry’s decades-long, well-documented trail of allegedly fraudulent and deceptive practices aimed at obscuring if not outright denying the role of fossil fuels in climate change.

In one recent example, a climate lawsuit filed by the State of Minnesota against the American Petroleum Institute and Exxon, among others, focused on “fraud, deceptive advertising, and other violations of Minnesota state law and common law.”

The lawsuit was filed in state court in 2020 and the defendants tried to move the trial to federal court. However, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison prevailed. One key step occurred last February, when a judge in Ramsey County ruled that the State has standing, and that it has “sufficiently pled causation and its claims regarding failure to warn, common-law fraud, fraud by omission, misrepresentation, reliance, and conspiracy, as well as its statutory claims related to the Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the False Statement in Advertising Act.”

After US President Donald Trump took office on January 20 of 2025, it was no surprise to see the US Department of Justice file two lawsuits on behalf of the oil industry last May, one aimed at blocking new climate legislation in New York and Vermont, and the other aimed at preventing Hawaii and Michigan from suing oil companies on account of harm from climate change.

How It Started … How It’s Going

It sure looks like Michigan AG Dana Nessel anticipated DOJ’s lawsuit, because she had a countermove at the ready. On January 23, Nessel announced that her office has filed a federal lawsuit against the oil industry with a focus on antitrust law, not climate impacts or consumer fraud. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court, Western District of Michigan, accuses BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute of a conspiracy to restrain trade and engage in anti-competitive practices.

Although the Michigan lawsuit forges a new path, Nessel explains that the initial goal actually was similar to other climate lawsuits. In 2024, Nessel’s office engaged the law firms Sher Edling LLP, DiCello Levitt LLP, and Hausfeld LLP to pursue the familiar fraud-and-deception angle, centering on the cost of climate change to Michigan consumers.

“This effort started as an investigation into the financial impacts to Michigan from the fossil fuel industry’s persistent coverup and deception about climate change,” Nessel’s office elaborated in a press statement on January 23, “However, efforts instead uncovered one of the most successful antitrust conspiracies in United States history that is now subject of the Attorney General’s lawsuit.”

The lawsuit details how the defendants and other co-conspirators collaborated to:

abandon renewable energy products, 

use patent manipulation and litigation to hinder market competitors, 

suppress information concerning the once-hidden costs of fossil fuels and the viability of alternatives, 

infiltrate and knowingly mislead information-producing institutions, 

surveil and intimidate watchdogs and public officials, and 

use trade associations to coordinate market-wide efforts to divert capital expenditures away from renewable energy.

A Seemingly Bottomless Alphabet Soup

For those of you following the long history of the oil industry’s trail of climate obstruction, some of the ground covered in the lawsuit may be familiar (full text here). The lawsuit also provides new insights on the extent to which the oil industry has worked to restrain competition from renewable energy. Section V, for example, describes the “seemingly bottomless alphabet soup” of organizations participating in the effort (breaks added for readability):

“API, IPIECA, OGCI, and IOGP are just a few of the trade associations and other joint ventures led by Defendants that, over nearly five decades, have brought together dozens of fossil fuel companies and industry groups and facilitated their coordination to suppress competition from renewable energy on a global scale.

“These examples offer only a sampling of the seemingly bottomless alphabet soup of organizations that Defendants have founded, joined, and/or actively participated in to advance their anticompetitive scheme: From 1979 to the present, the cartel has consisted of several energy companies, which have used numerous trade associations and other joint ventures (e.g., ‘astroturf’ organizations and other front groups, as well as committees, publications, etc.) to coordinate their activities.”

“Taken together, these trade associations and other joint ventures have enabled Defendants and their Co-Conspirators to (among other things) synchronize assessments of climate risks, monitor each other’s scientific and industry outlooks, align their responses to competitive threats, and coordinate their efforts to suppress technologies likely to displace gasoline or other fossil fuels through collusion rather than competition,” the lawsuit continues.

Another Day In Court For The Oil Industry

The lawsuit goes on to link the repression of competition to negative impacts on Michigan consumers, such as “forcing them to rely on fossil fuels which pose significant negative externalities, instead of cheaper and substitutable renewable energy options.”

Nessel may find the way blocked by DOJ again, or maybe not. Maybe she’s on to something. The focus on antitrust law neatly skirts around all the work done by the oil industry and its affiliates to cast doubt on climate science. Antitrust law is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish.

The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 prohibits activities that restrict interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace. “It outlaws any contract, conspiracy, or combination of business interests in restraint of foreign or interstate trade,” Cornell Law School reminds everyone.

As described by Cornell, the Clayton Act of 1914 amended the Sherman Act to outlaw certain types of monopolistic behavior, particularly in regards to the purchase of a competing company. The law prohibits:

• price discrimination against competing companies;
• conditioning sales on exclusive dealing;
• mergers and acquisitions when they may substantially reduce competition;
• serving on the board of directors for two competing companies.

The Michigan Antitrust Reform Act of 1984 prohibits “combinations, and conspiracies in restraint of trade or commerce,” and prohibits “monopolies and attempts to monopolize trade or commerce.”

Hold on to your hats…

Image: The Michigan State Attorney General has filed an antitrust lawsuit against BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and oil industry organizations, citing a 50-year effort to illegally restrain competition from renewable energy (screenshot, courtesy of State of Michigan).