Macquarie Climate Change Price Gouging
November 18, 2024
By Tyson Slocum
On August 30, 2024, Macquarie Energy LLC filed an application for renewal of its authority to export electricity to Canada, where it states at page 1 that it ‘‘does not own or control any electric power generation or transmission facilities and does not have a franchised electric power service area.’’[1]
This is categorically false. Affiliates of Macquarie Energy LLC hold controlling interests in two utilities with franchised electric service areas which include transmission facilities: Puget Sound Energy in Washington State with 1.2 million captive customers, and Cleco Power and its nearly 300,000 captive customers. In addition to controlling two franchised electric utilities, Macquarie owns at least eight waste-to-energy electric power stations in ISO-NE and PJM, and has a pending application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to acquire a fleet of power generation assets in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana. Louisiana, Oregon, New Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Utah and Virginia.[2]
Macquarie Energy LLC is a defendant accused of energy market manipulation. The State of Kansas sued Macquarie Energy LLC for $50 million, alleging the company price gouged consumers during Winter Storm Uri, when 276 Americans died because they lost access to energy while certain companies engaged in widespread price-gouging. The case is active before U.S. District Court Judge Angel D. Mitchell in Topeka, Kansas.[3] In addition, FERC’s Office of Enforcement has a non-public market manipulation investigation involving companies’ actions during Winter Storm Uri. The U.S. Department of Energy should confirm whether Macquarie is a target of that ongoing enforcement investigation. Regardless, DOE should not approve Macquarie’s request to export electricity until allegations of its price gouging and market manipulation have been resolved.
Attached as Exhibit A is a 2021 Wall Street Journal article noting that Macquarie earned $215 million in windfall profits during Winter Storm Uri. It is likely that Macquarie’s control of Multifuels Midstream Group and its network of 150 miles of natural gas pipelines connecting wellhead gas production with key gas-powered generation in ERCOT[4] helped inform Macquarie’s price-gouging trading operation in Texas.[5]
Read the full filing here: MacquireDOE
[1] www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2024-10-18/pdf/2024-24117.pdf
[2] https://elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filelist?accession_number=20241004-5222
[3] Case # 5:23-cv-04116-DDC-ADM, https://ecf.ksd.uscourts.gov/
[4] https://x.com/TysonSlocum/status/1364949313344974854
[5] Unlike FERC’s code of conduct rules prohibiting communication between pipeline and trading affiliates (18 CFR § 358), Texas has no such code of conduct rules.