Michigan health professionals support AG Nessel's actions to hold Big Oil accountable for "cartel"-like actions against clean energy

Michigan health practitioners have long borne witness to the detrimental impacts of mis- and disinformation.

Whether it's bad-faith speculation about the efficacy of proven public health interventions or polluters who deny and downplay their liability, we know that when industries set their own rules, they act only in their best interest and often to the detriment of the public's well-being.

Nowhere is this more apparent than with fossil fuel companies that have lobbied extensively to strip back environmental protections and sown doubt around their role in the climate crisis. That's why Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action (MiCCA) supports Attorney General Dana Nessel for taking legal action to expose Big Oil's unfair trade practices, which have manipulated the market against decarbonization and endangered the public's well-being.

Fossil fuel pollution is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths in the US each year, and Michigan has one of the highest per capita death rates from the combustion of fossil fuels in the country. In the summer of 2023 alone, climate-driven wildfire smoke from Canada led to 169 deaths in Michigan due to elevated levels of fine particulate matter and nitrous oxides.  A similar period of wildfire smoke occurred in 2025, though more recent mortality data is not yet available.

Healthcare practitioners have also seen the indirect effects posed by fossil fuels in our offices, clinics and emergency departments. These include worsening heart and lung conditions related to heat, humidity, and associated poor air quality, tick bites and Lyme disease, pregnancy complications, direct heat exhaustion and heat stroke, and the health impacts of extreme-weather induced flooding and power outages.

Despite the clear data connecting fossil fuel industries to these impacts, oil companies have deliberately slowed the transition to renewable energy, which would address health harms by cleaning the air and moving the needle against the downstream climate impacts.

Just like with legal battles against tobacco and opioids companies, attorneys general from many states have looked at the evidence of Big Oil’s climate deception and taken companies like Exxon, Chevron, and Shell to court. As our communities suffer from disinformation campaigns — whether it be tobacco, opioid or fossil fuel — it’s critical that we hold corporations accountable in a court of law. 

That’s also why Big Oil’s push to obtain legal immunity from Congress to escape the dozens of climate accountability lawsuits like Michigan’s is so concerning. We cannot allow fossil fuel corporations to operate outside of the law and Michigan’s leaders in Congress should reject any attempts to grant any industries legal immunity from deceptive and conspiratorial actions. 

Michigan residents are paying the price for the harms caused by fossil fuels — in their personal health and family finance. At a time when the cost of getting adequate healthcare coverage is skyrocketing, and many people will be left uninsured, Nessel's legal action will help illuminate the dangers of fossil fuels and shine a light on fossil fuel corporations’ cartel-like conspiracy to keep us reliant on their products, driving up energy costs. 

We recognize that fossil fuels have historically powered our world and contributed to significant scientific advances, including in medicine. But it’s wrong – and illegal as Nessel’s suit demonstrates – for companies to manipulate the market and stall the development of alternative technologies, which can meet our energy needs, often at reduced costs to the consumer, without endangering our environment and health.

Using the courts to set appropriate limits and hold polluters accountable has obviously never been more important. Now is the time to call for an end to Big Oil’s monopoly and ensure our communities are released from the burden of unnecessary pollution. While Nessel has taken a necessary step, we call on her successor to carry the lawsuit forward to its fruition.