Michigan's top prosecutor is going head-to-head with Big Oil, aiming to hold them financially responsible for their role in the state's climate woes. Attorney General Dana Nessel is preparing legal action against fossil fuel giants, following in the footsteps of several other states that have already hurled lawsuits at the industry for a battered environment and a threatened economy.
Bearing the banner of justice for a changing climate, Nessel's office claims the oil and gas industry has known for years that its products throw fuel on the fire of global warming. According to The Detroit News, the industry's tenure as a profitable enterprise came with a deceitful dark side, peddling falsehoods about the climate crisis. "I don't know that there's a bigger issue facing the state of Michigan than climate change," Nessel told the publication.
The legal challenge also addresses economic pressure points. According to WXYZ, Nessel explained, “Warmer temperatures are shrinking ski seasons in the UP and disrupting the wonderful blooms of Holland’s Tulip Time Festival." Severe weather is up, and with it, the costs to the Great Lakes State.
Industry defenders like Phil Goldberg, special counsel for the Manufacturers' Accountability Project, call these legal moves meritless. In a dodge of the core issue, responding to Michigan's impending lawsuits, Goldberg suggested that the courtroom isn't the place for climate change. "Climate policy is for Congress to debate and decide, not a patchwork of courts," Ryan Meyers, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the American Petroleum Institute, echoed in agreement, as reported by Bridge Michigan. Instead, the focus, according to them, should be on technological innovation and not litigation.
Nonetheless, Nessel's strategic push for accountability isn't without momentum. Decades of internal industry documents and investigative reports have laid bare that oil companies like Exxon Mobil were privy to the environmental consequences of their actions long before they became dinner table talking points. As reported by Bridge Michigan, Denise Keele, executive director of the Michigan Climate Action Network, supports the move, to fight disinformation and hold responsible parties to account.
With the clock ticking until a June 5th deadline for legal eagles to step forward and partner with the state, Michigan seems set to enter a protracted battle. A battle that, while not expected to wrap during Nessel's tenure, is aimed at establishing a legacy of responsibility for an issue definitively global in scope, but with stark local consequences.
