Biden Judge Dismisses Democrat AG’s Climate Claim As ‘Speculative’

A federal judge in Michigan has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel accusing BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute of conspiring for decades to suppress renewable energy and inflate fossil fuel prices. U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering, appointed by President Joe Biden, ruled Tuesday that Michigan could not bring an antitrust claim tied to the alleged scheme, calling the state's damages theory too speculative to establish that the companies' conduct actually caused higher costs. She noted that fossil fuel prices depend on countless outside factors, including technology, investment decisions and public demand for renewables, making it impossible to calculate what prices would have been absent the alleged conspiracy, according to Daily Caller.

Beckering said most of the harms Michigan claimed, such as higher insurance costs and lower home values, fell outside antitrust law's reach, leaving only a claim of overcharges for energy as potentially valid. She pointed to the 1972 Supreme Court case Hawaii v. Standard Oil Co., which limited states' ability to sue for broad economic harm under antitrust statutes. Attorneys for the companies welcomed the ruling: Theodore J. Boutrous, Jr., representing Chevron, said it joins a growing list of climate lawsuits courts have rejected, while Phil Goldberg of the Manufacturers' Accountability Project said Michigan had tried unsuccessfully to use antitrust law to litigate national energy and climate policy. The case is one of several nationwide targeting oil companies over climate-related costs, with the U.S. Supreme Court set to hear a climate-liability dispute within two weeks.

Summarized by PolitiKool from Daily Caller’s reporting. Read the full story at Daily Caller →