With help of Nebraska law firm, Kris Kobach refiles $50M natural gas price gouging lawsuit

With the help of new outside counsel, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach has refiled a $50 million natural gas price gouging lawsuit against Macquarie Energy.

The lawsuit alleges that Macquarie, one of the nation's largest natural gas marketers, manipulated prices during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021, resulting in overcharges to Kansas consumers.

"It's disgraceful that Macquarie would manipulate prices at a time when Kansans were already hurting from the storm," Kobach said in a statement. "We will do everything we can to recover what was taken from those Kansans."

The company has maintained it did nothing wrong and previously pledged to "continue to vigorously defend any claims brought against it."

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Topeka, comes after a previous case was dismissed on a technicality by District Judge Daniel Crabtree due to a mistake in the original filing in Shawnee County District Court. Crabtree's October ruling suggested he was not necessarily pleased with the outcome, putting blame on both Congress and Kobach, while practically inviting the attorney general to properly refile the case.

Attorneys with Nebraska-based law firm Hilgers Graben joined two staff attorneys from Kobach's office on the complaint.

Hilgers Graben was awarded a contract the day after Crabtree dismissed the case. They came on after Kobach terminated a previous contract with Florida-based law firm Morgan & Morgan, which had been hired by Kobach's predecessor Derek Schmidt.

Jason Alatidd is a statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas AG Kris Kobach again sues Macquarie Energy over gas prices