May 5, 2026
Hot air, cold cash
Feds Fine Durham Energy Efficiency Co $722M
Commenters can’t believe a company allegedly got rich selling ‘not using power’
TLDR: Federal regulators slammed American Efficient with a $722 million fine, saying it manipulated power markets with a business model one commissioner called a scam. Commenters were equal parts furious and amused, joking about getting paid for “not using electricity” and questioning whether others helped make the scheme possible.
The $722 million federal fine against Durham-based American Efficient would already be huge news on its own, but the real fireworks are in the public reaction. Federal regulators say the company gamed electricity markets by claiming energy savings from efficient products and cashing in big. One commissioner didn’t exactly whisper the accusation either, calling the whole operation “a scam.” American Efficient says the claims are baseless and insists it did nothing wrong. That split alone had commenters grabbing popcorn.
The loudest reaction? Pure disbelief at the business model itself. One popular comment joked that if this is how the game works, someone could build an “energy consumption facility” — basically a giant machine wasting power — and then get paid for not using it. That kind of sarcasm set the tone: people weren’t just angry, they were baffled. Several commenters basically said, wait, this was a real company doing this at scale?
Then came the side-eye aimed beyond American Efficient. One hot take argued the article was skipping the juiciest part: if retailers were selling so-called “environmental attributes” tied to energy-saving products, did stores like Home Depot also help create this mess? Another commenter called the whole setup “bizarre,” saying ordinary people would need a flowchart to understand how projected savings turned into real money. In other words, the community verdict was brutal: part outrage, part confusion, part comedy — and a lot of people asking how something this weird allegedly survived for years in the first place.
Key Points
- •FERC fined American Efficient $722 million and ordered more than $410 million in disgorgement over alleged fraud in its energy-efficiency program.
- •FERC said American Efficient withheld key information from grid operators, enabling manipulation of energy markets.
- •American Efficient’s business model involved buying sales data and environmental attributes from retailers such as Lowe’s and using projected energy savings to participate in capacity auctions.
- •The five-member commission voted unanimously, and multiple commissioners said the case harmed legitimate energy-efficiency programs.
- •FERC Commissioner David La Certe said he would refer the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice for possible criminal investigation, while the company denied wrongdoing.