A federal appeals court has thrown out class-action lawsuits from Kansas residents over “exorbitant” price increases by natural gas suppliers during a 2021 winter storm.
The claims under Kansas consumer protection laws — totaling hundreds of millions of dollars that will take customers years to pay off through monthly surcharges — are preempted by the federal Natural Gas Act, ruled the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The case involves five class-action suits against natural gas producers and suppliers over soaring gas prices during Winter Storm Uri, a multiday weather event in February 2021 that led to a deep freeze across much of the U.S., including Kansas.
Index prices for the region at that time ranged between $2.545 and $2.580 per million British thermal units, but prices during the storm spiked to $622.785 per MMBtu, 20 times higher than anything seen in the prior 15 years.
