The top US energy regulator said he welcomes a recent decision by the Oklahoma attorney general to pursue potential litigation following an investigation into natural gas market manipulation during a 2021 winter storm that left millions without power.
(Bloomberg) — The top US energy regulator said he welcomes a recent decision by the Oklahoma attorney general to pursue potential litigation following an investigation into natural gas market manipulation during a 2021 winter storm that left millions without power.
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“I think that’s a good thing,” Willie Phillips, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said Thursday in an interview with Bloomberg News. “Look, we need all the help we can get, but rest assured, we will get you.”
Phillips said FERC’s investigations into possible market manipulation during 2021 Winter Storm Uri and 2022 Winter Storm Elliott are ongoing but declined to provide specifics because the agency’s enforcement activity is confidential.
Investigation staff have interviewed “every single market participant,” Phillips said, and the commission is working with other jurisdictions. “We have not rested.”
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond said last week he plans to retain outside counsel to pursue a possible lawsuit that would likely target natural gas marketers. “It will probably be the most significant lawsuit filed by the state of Oklahoma in its history,” he said in a news conference.
Earlier this year, Kansas became the first state to file a lawsuit alleging natural gas market manipulation during Winter Storm Uri. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach’s office is accusing Macquarie Energy LLC of artificially inflating natural gas prices by “hundreds of dollars” per million British thermal units. Macquarie has previously said it doesn’t comment on active litigation.
Hundreds of people died and millions lost electricity during Uri, which caused power and natural gas supply to fail across states including Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. At the end of last year, power grids and natural gas markets were tested once again when Elliott brought plunging temperatures to much of the US, resulting in power outages and high energy prices.
—With assistance from Naureen S. Malik.
