Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Richard Glick speaks with Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of S&P Global during CERAWeek by S&P Global at Hilton Americas on Thursday, March 10, 2022 in Houston.The chairman of the federal agency that regulates that nation’s energy system said Thursday that an investigation into whether natural gas providers manipulated the electricity market during the February 2021 freeze has uncovered “anomalies.
“We are investigating potential allegations of manipulation that may have happened in jurisdictional electricity markets, and we did find some anomalies,” Glick said. “Those are being further investigated.” Natural gas prices spiked to more than $100 per million British thermal units in West Texas during the freeze, according to The Woodlands-based nonprofit Houston Advanced Research Center, which analyzes energy issues. Before the winter storm, natural gas was selling for an average of about $3 per million British thermal units.