Court Dismisses Claim New England Utilities Manipulated Gas Mkt

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The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has, finally, dismissed a sham lawsuit against Eversource Energy and Avangrid Inc. Last October the radical Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) published a “report” that makes the preposterous claim that New England customers have overpaid utility bills by $3.6 billion due to collusion between the natural gas and electricity industries (see EDF Accuses New England Gas Utilities of $3.6B Market Manipulation). The report said New England utility companies Eversource and Avangrid intentionally manipulated the flow of gas along the Algonquin natural gas pipeline by placing and later withdrawing orders, in order to spike the cost of gas which then spiked the cost of electricity generated by the resulting higher cost of gas. It is a totally made-up, false report. A group of ambulance-chasing lawyers found enough people to sign up to launch a class action lawsuit against Eversource and Avangrid for market manipulation (see New England Lawsuit Claims Utilities “Constrained” NatGas Pipeline). In February, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission weighed in and told EDF its so-called study is “flawed” and there is “no evidence” of capacity withholding by Eversource and Avangrid (see FERC Dismisses EDF Claim New England Utilities Manipulated Gas Mkt). And now the courts have done the same, dismissing the lawsuit, saying the litigants had “not stated a cognizable antitrust claim”…

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