Four years after the Hot Springs, Arkansas Convention Center cried foul about a $238,000 monthly gas bill during the 2021 winter storm Yuri, the state’s attorney general concluded it was not price gouging. He cleared a gas supplier who remains accused of gouging Oklahoa utilities in the same storm.
The Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission paid the $238,450.96 monthly gas bill but filed a complaint with the Attorney General against gas supplier Symmetry Energy Solutions accusing it of price gouging. Symmetry Energy is one of the firms sued by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond who accused it of market manipulation in supplying Oklahoma utilities with natural gas during the same winter storm.
Symmetry denied the Arkansas claims saying the allegations of price gouging were “unfounded and reflect a misunderstanding of how the natural gas markets work.”
At the time of the allegations in 2021, Symmetry stated, “Winter Storm Uri severely disrupted natural gas supplies at the very same time that demand was very high because of the record-setting frigid temperatures.”
This week, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin announced his office investigated the complaint and determined there was no price gouging on the part of Symmetry.
