Lawmakers in Michigan have found a new way to target climate lawsuits against the oil and gas industry: cut off funding to the lawyers.
A new provision in the state’s 2027 budget prevents the state attorney general from “joining a multistate lawsuit or taking part of a lawsuit against the federal government or an oil or gas entity” without legislative approval. The language appears to have been added during budget negotiations between Democrats who control the Senate and Republicans who control the House.
The move comes as Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, in January joined the ranks of cities and states suing the oil and gas industry for allegedly deceiving the public about climate change.
Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, a Republican, noted at a press conference earlier this month that both chambers voted for the budget. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, signed the budget into law last week.
“Republican and Democrat, we all voted for this,” Hall said. “We don’t want our attorney general filing these lawsuits against oil and gas companies for political reasons.”
Hall added that lawmakers “want [Nessel] working on consumer protection and fighting against people that are scamming us and all the other legitimate functions of the attorney general.”
Nessel’s office says it doesn’t need the Legislature’s permission to act.
“The Attorney General is well within her established authority and historical precedent to initiate litigation like this,” Nessel’s press secretary Danny Wimmer told Michigan Capitol Confidential. The news service run by the conservative-leaning Mackinac Center for Public Policy first reported the budget language.
Both of Nessel’s two immediate predecessors sued the federal government without the Legislature’s permission, Wimmer noted.
The budget language would also block Michigan’s attorney general from participating in lawsuits against the federal government. Wimmer said that with more than 50 lawsuits filed against the Trump administration, Nessel has preserved or recouped more than $3.4 billion.
“These lawsuits have been an essential bulwark against a cruel and lawless administration, and it is vital that the Attorney General continue to defend the State of Michigan in the courts across the nation,” Wimmer said.
The push to block Michigan’s climate lawsuit comes as Republicans have sought to quash similar litigation across the country. Five states passed laws that would block such lawsuits, and the Trump administration earlier this year unsuccessfully sued to block Michigan from filing its case.
Michigan’s lawsuit accuses four of the largest producers and the American Petroleum Institute of breaking federal and state antitrust laws by acting as a “cartel” to restrict the development of renewable energy and electric vehicles. Nessel in late 2024 brought on a legal team that includes two firms with antitrust experience to handle the case.
