king giant the first Wall Street bank to sell retail electricity contracts to households. “Competitive retail electricity suppliers solicit households to sign contracts to provide electricity, often door-to-door,” said Tyson Solcum, director of Public Citizen’s energy program. “The industry is known to frequently employ unfair and deceptive marketing and sales tactics, disproportionately impacting low-income communities, communities of color and the elderly.
“Controlling both energy generation and building out a network of households that are contractually obligated to buy your energy is ripe for consumer abuse,” said Slocum. “Lawmakers have attempted to build a firewall between banks owning and controlling non-bank businesses. While Goldman is playing a game with shell corporations, there are very clear connections between Goldman Sachs, private equity firm West Street Capital Partners, and Rhythm Energy.