There is a core misunderstanding fueling a recent lawsuit that has made headlines. The Texas attorney general and 10 other GOP attorneys generals have accused some of the nation’s largest asset managers of “colluding” to harm coal companies, making the altogether false claim that the decline of coal is the result of some coordinated political vendetta rather than simple, demonstrable market economics.

With the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission joining the conversation, it’s important to delve into the details and consider market trends over the past few decades.

The simple reality is that coal’s decline in the United States did not start with asset managers or ESG (“environmental, social and governance”) investment policies. It started decades ago with the shale gas revolution, when fracking technology unleashed an abundant, cheap and cleaner-burning alternative.

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