Advocacy News – May 16, 2024
What’s new: Last week, Attorney General (AG) Dana Nessel announced her intent to sue the fossil fuel industry over their impact to climate change, calling on trial lawyers from across the state to submit legal arguments to her office in a request for proposal (RFP) format.
What we’re saying: The MI Chamber believes this action sets a highly dangerous precedent and is adamantly opposed for several reasons. Here are just two:
- It’s difficult to see this recent action as anything more than a capricious attack on the business community. It’s unclear what the legitimate legal argument is for such a lawsuit and who exactly the intended defendant is.
- It seems like a grave abuse of the power and authority of the Department of Attorney General. Using a contingency-fee solicitation to private law firms who are highly incentivized to potentially benefit from such a lawsuit creates significant concern that a state office could go this route on any number of issues without a clear rationale for doing so.
The impact: The AG’s approach could have an enormous cooling effect on Michigan’s business community and could negatively impact the state’s overall attractiveness to job providers looking to grow and invest in the Great Lakes State.
What’s next: The MI Chamber will be working with partner organizations to push back hard, sharing how this approach is extraordinarily risky and damaging. It runs counter to many of the goals we share with the Governor’s administration to growing our state, economy and the state’s manufacturing and energy sectors.
For questions, more information or to get involved, contact Mike Alaimo at malaimo@michamber.com.