By Chris Amstutz No Spoilers The fall season inherently breeds uncertainty. Questions like, will the weather be 80 degrees and sunny, or 50 and rainy? Is the Stranger Things cast too old to be believable anymore? Or the most important, troubling question of them all, will natural gas storage levels be at unsustainably low levels […]

By: Matthew Mattingly Gas Prices GIFfrom Gas GIFs 123 Everyone seems to have strong opinions on the high energy prices impacting our country (and the rest of the world).  Record high prices at the pump, coinciding with historically high prices for all fossil fuels have more people talking about energy supply and demand than I […]

By: Chris Amstutz We regret to inform you; the politicians are back at it again. We have commented on politics in energy numerous times in the past, and today we look to address the volley of energy headlines that have come out in recent weeks. Like every topic, there is nuance and gray area that […]

By; Chris Amstutz We interrupt your regularly scheduled broadcast to inform you that energy markets (and everything else for that matter) are going crazy once again. What better way to convey market volatility, than through the catchy, over-dramatic song released by R.E.M. in 1987? Perhaps you glanced over our previous calls to action here, here, […]

By: Chris Amstutz With thousands of years of human technological advances you would think your local weatherperson could prepare everyone for the upcoming winter. Winter is coming (insert your favorite Game of Throne meme here) and unfortunately forecasts more than 7 days out are still iffy from most meteorologists. That is why many would rather […]

By: Chris Amstutz Natural gas and electricity markets are going through a fundamental change. These markets are coming of age and the idea of prices falling in the future is as innocent as a young Tom Cruise picking a fight with a hustler. Gone are the days of U.S. prices being sheltered from global influences, […]

By: Matthew Mattingly The ever-changing energy landscape has proven its prowess again with the recent evolution of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) markets. Staying ahead of these trends requires a voracious reader willing to scour articles, blogs, and even Twitter. Books are slightly less of a requirement yet, I recently found myself reading Meghan L. O’Sullivan’s […]

Choice! Energy Management’s blog, The Burn, is an extensive and diverse selection of posts on all the latest energy news including technology, politics and business. Our goal is to open pathways for productive conversation, as well as examine Choice’s place in the world of energy. Where has the time gone? Five years ago, Choice! Energy […]

By: Chris Amstutz The winter storm of the century in the energy capital of the world has frozen all preconceived notions of the Electric “Reliability” Council of Texas. As the snow melts and the plumbing repairs begin, the analysts at Choice! Energy Management find solace in aiding Texans through these difficult times. With any natural […]

By: Chris Amstutz Whoever started the idea that 2021 was going to be a more simple, normal year should be run out of town. *Insert more 2021 vs. 2020 meme’s here*.  New COVID strains, new politicians, and continued social uneasiness is making it feel like the 14th month of 2020. Add the fact that complex […]

By: Chris Amstutz via GIPHY The NYMEX natural gas market was not exempt from the craziness of this year. Compared to 2019 price volatility was up 50%, and we recorded the lowest price since 1991 ($1.482 on 6/25). Of the 236 days traded so far this year, 134 of those days traded below the $2.00 […]

By: Chris Amstutz Never have we had Presidential candidates with such diametrically opposed energy policies. We have spoken in previous blogs about the intertwined climate/energy policy debate, and now we have been led up to the fork in the proverbial yellow brick road. Will we get behind the Tinman, Joe Biden, and grease the gears […]

‘Choice! Energy Management’ Announces Purchase Of Majority Stake In Online Platform ‘eAgent.Energy’ Latest Investment Will Diversify ‘Choice!’s’ Portfolio Of Technology Solutions For Energy Industry Professionals Nationwide September 16, 2020 (Houston, TX) — Choice! Energy Management, a full-service energy procurement and utility management company, announces the purchase of the majority stake in the platform eAgent.Energy—a cloud-based […]

By: Matthew Mattingly Styx Mr Roboto GIF from Styx GIFs The term Robotic Process Automation may have a different definition depending on the person or reference.  To my wife, the term Robotic Process may conjure the image of a dance move that her husband does WAY TOO early and often at parties. However, we will […]

via GIPHY The only thing that could make 2020 more unbelievable would be massive alien saucers hovering over major US cities. COVID-19 continues to linger, election rhetoric is heating up, and NYMEX Natural Gas just broke the record for its LOWEST MONTHLY PRICE SETTLEMENT IN 25 YEARS. With the July contract settling at $1.495/MMBtu, preconceived […]

By: Chris Amstutz via GIPHY Opinions are circulating that 2020 has been the worst year ever. Extreme maybe, but the roaring 20’s is certainly off to a rough start for the country (and natural gas price outlooks). The good news? The light at the end of the tunnel is in sight. For two months now […]

“There’s no earthly way of knowing.. which direction we are going.. there’s no knowing where we’re rowing.. or which way the river’s flowing” Oh how fast everything can change in our new modern world! A month ago we were innocently dissecting theoretical outcomes of political energy agendas, and now we are quarantined in our homes […]

By: Chris Amstutz Like so much going on today, your political identity may determine how you interpret the title of this blog. Is 2020 truly the biggest election year ever, as CNN and Fox News say? Is it really the year that will finally decide the fate of our planet and children? The political debates […]

By: Chris Amstutz Businesses across the country are taking notice of the rapidly changing power generation mix. Is it simply due to the sight of wind and solar farms popping up along the highway? No, rather it is due to something more vital: their bottom line. From California, to Texas, to the Northeast, the impacts […]

By: Chris Amstutz Many believe that we are at a crossroad as a species due to CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. Plans such as the Green New Deal and other energy sector de-carbonization plans have been in the news lately, but surprisingly none have included ideas about nuclear power. In our first blog, Nuclear Power: […]

By: Matthew Mattingly I often get asked what separates Choice! Energy Management from our competition. Usually I respond with the word “Strategery” to describe our services. Not only does it typically get a smirk from those that remember the classic Bush v Gore SNL skit, but it gets people to quickly associate Choice with a […]

By: Chris Amstutz What better of a way to talk about the Green New Deal than by comparing it to America’s favorite guessing game? We’ve seen talking heads coast to coast debate the merits of this idea to revolutionize the energy grid, many of whom haven’t thought twice about how their iPhone gets charged at […]

By: Chris Amstutz The holidays are a time for being thankful for family, friends, and the recent slump in oil prices. Obviously lower oil prices mean Americans save more on gasoline, but oil prices affect many aspects of the energy and financial world. The recent happenings in the oil market have been a game of […]

By: Chris Amstutz The fall season inherently breeds uncertainty. Questions like, will the weather be 80 degrees and sunny, or 50 and rainy? Should I pay money to have someone scare me, or just sit at home and let the evening news do it? Or the most important, troubling question of them all, will natural […]

By: Chris Amstutz The recent pricing spikes in California serve as an interesting case study in the energy community. A series of events have aligned in California to give the CAISO grid and SoCal gas system their biggest test in the last ten plus years.  It certainly feels like Murphy’s law is at work in […]

By: Chris Amstutz We have saved the broadest, yet most impactful, oil market discussion for part III of this blog series. The latest round of geopolitical news has made the oil market crystal ball less murky. The interactions between the countries of OPEC, Russia, China and the United States are tense, and oil prices are […]

By: Chris Amstutz Certainly by now our consistent blog readers are picking up on the theme of relating random pop-culture topics to energy markets, and maybe to your delightful chagrin, this blog will be no different. Today we will continue discussing our latest series on oil market volatility and how Permian production growth fits in […]

By: Chris Amstutz Many analysts in the energy industry try to make a living by attempting to forecast the next big macro shift in oil prices. The truth of the matter is that nobody can fully anticipate movements in oil prices, not in this geopolitical environment, not with Trump as our President. Just when an […]

By: Chris Amstutz Puppet Master: (Noun) “A person, group, or country that covertly controls another” The weird thing about having such an unreserved President in office has been the rather predictable, unpredictability. One day we hear about alleged affairs with porn stars, but we know it will quickly be forgotten the next day when North […]

By: Chris Amstutz It’s that wild time of the year when work productivity tanks as people across America secretly watch their favorite college basketball team compete for glory in the NCAA Tournament. This sacred month for sports fans will be a roller coaster of expectations and emotions, just like this summer will be in the […]

By: Chris Amstutz What images come to mind when you hear the term “Nuclear Power”?  If it is 3 eyed fish, rivers of fluorescent glowing matter or people in haz-mat suits, you aren’t too far off from most people.  Shows like The Simpsons have been painting a satirically negative view of the nuclear industry for […]

By: Matthew Mattingly & Chris Amstutz The Arcticgeddon, Snowmageddon, Bomb Cyclone Blizzard, or whatever you want to call it, just brought harsh winter weather to the Eastern Seaboard. This storm boasted 60+ mph blizzard winds and serves as the exclamation point for a wild two weeks of record low temperatures for the region and the […]

By: Chris Amstutz Last fall we witnessed Donald Trump accomplish the improbable by defeating Hillary Clinton in the US Presidential Election. This fall we have seen a surge in Texas power futures, and many are again left wondering, what happened? While the results of a US Presidential Election may be moderately more important (sarcasm), I […]

By: Chris Amstutz With thousands of years of human technological advances you would think your local weatherperson could prepare everyone for the upcoming winter. Winter is coming (insert your favorite Game of Throne meme here) and unfortunately forecasts more than 7 days out are still iffy from most meteorologists. That is why many would rather […]

By: Matthew Mattingly Alright, so we heard you loud and clear. You love the information in the Bulls & Bears report, but you don’t have time to read the full report.  You need something quick and you need something easy. That way you can get back to what you do best…your job. Which is why […]

by Chris Amstutz / Matthew Mattingly It was around this time last year that in the heat of the presidential campaign, we witnessed a full committal to the coal industry by Donald Trump. “A lot of people are going to be put back to work, a lot of coal miners are going back to work,” […]

by Matthew Mattingly Budgeting & Forecasting is an essential part of a comprehensive energy consulting program. This service not only ensures clients have an accurate picture of their future energy spend, but it also allows clients to effectively evaluate future energy contracts. Many energy consultants offer “budgeting” or “forecasting” as one of their services, but […]

by Nicole Bushong and Matthew Mattingly We live in an age of automation. Manual processing has been eliminated; replaced by technology improvements that are both quicker and more efficient. Of course you don’t need an energy consulting firm to tell you this simple fact. Just look around in your daily lives to see how much […]

by Matthew Mattingly The best thing about Trump being president has to be political arguments. Not for me personally, but just watching others get in heated “discussions” because so many people love him or just flat out hate him no matter what he does. What is even more fun is starting political arguments. Nothing beats […]

by Matthew Mattingly The NYMEX natural gas market has been depressed for a while now, even more so than the plot of Manchester by the Sea. Thanks to the shale era at the start of this decade, the NYMEX natural gas market has traded at historical lows. Furthermore, it’s been a rare occurrence for an […]

by Nicole Bushong and Scott Armbruster When it comes to managing your company’s energy footprint, it’s important to look at the cost effectiveness, process efficiency and staff productivity of your solution. A successful energy management solution does much more than implement a strategic procurement process. An in-depth understanding of each account at every location is […]

by Matthew Mattingly Love him or hate him, Donald Trump is officially the President of the United States and he is not taking long to put his campaign promises into action. Immigration, border walls, trans-pacific partnership and transgender bathrooms are just a few of the items that have been discussed or placed in executive orders. […]

by Matthew Mattingly Book reviews do not make the best blog entries. I get that, but sometimes the right book comes around that you need to share with your closest energy friends on the interwebs. That’s how I feel after just finishing The Green and the Black a book that discusses the fracking industry. Unlike […]

by Scott Armbruster   Sustainability is a word that over the last 5 years has taken the energy industry by storm.  Merriam-Webster defines sustainability as: “1: capable of being sustained.  2a: of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged. 2b: […]

by Matthew Mattingly The Bulls finally had enough, well at least for a little while. For over 2 years the Bears continued to put downward pressure on the NYMEX natural gas market. Supported by record production and excess supply, the Bears moved NYMEX pricing to levels not seen since Bush was president…that is George HW […]

by Matthew Mattingly There are a lot of energy consulting firms in the market. No one can dispute that statement. I know this not only from working in the industry for over 10+ years, but I hear it on a weekly basis from my clients. They are bombarded constantly with phone calls from energy consulting firms […]

by Matthew Mattingly & Will Nash If you are in the energy industry, a term you hear on a daily basis is “shale revolution.”  The shale revolution describes the the technological advancement in hydrocarbon (oil, natural gas, NGLs) drilling that allows drillers to remove hydrocarbons from shale rock in a cost effective manner.  This new way […]

by Rory Fabian Before the recent uptick in pricing of natural gas, we were seeing NYMEX at its lowest levels in YEARS. This was tremendous news for the end user because, as we know, electricity pricing will go down if Natural Gas is cheap, right? Well, natural gas, among other commodities, plays a big role in […]

by Matthew Mattingly Over the last year or so, a hot topic in the natural gas and oil industry is U.S. rig counts. Rig counts have fallen dramatically over the last 18 months coinciding with the collapse of oil prices. Each new week brought a new low, finally hitting a bottom of 404 total rigs just […]

by Scott Armbruster Are we there yet? …Are we there yet?…I’m Hungry!….Are we there yet? Yes, its vacation season. It’s time to continue the American tradition of hitting the road on long car trips while listening to your kids ask a hundred times…“are we there yet?” This simple, four word question coming from the back […]

by Scott Armbruster What the hell are these terms listed in my electricity supply contract? It lists many different cost components such as: Capacity Performance, FERC 745, Nodal Congestion, Winter Reliability, Transmission Enhancements, Line Losses, Auction Revenue Rights, Material Adverse Change and that’s just half of them. Are these included in my price? Do I need […]

by Matthew Mattingly Low pricing has been much the talk over the last few years in the energy industry. Low prices started in the natural gas industry, moved to natural gas liquids (ethane, propane, or anything else that ends with -ane), and finally hit the oil markets at the end of 2014. The drop in pricing […]

by Rory Fabian As if 2015 energy prices were not low enough, Q1 of 2016 has been defined by historic low energy pricing. Prompt month natural gas pricing has been trading below the $2.00/MMBtu mark since early February. The forward curve isn’t much better, as the NYMEX natural gas curve does not trade above $3.00/MMBtu […]

by Matthew Mattingly If you are one of the 30 million domestic subscribers to Netflix (or one that just steals your friend’s login credentials) then there is a good chance that you have watched the television series House of Cards. The fictional, political drama describes the life of Frank Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey) as […]

by Matthew Mattingly Typically at least once a day I will see something on the internet or TV that makes me feel old. Today didn’t disappoint when I saw the following tweet regarding hats….     For the last couple of years I’ve noticed the trend was going to the flat bill hat, but curved […]

by Matthew Mattingly Let’s be honest with ourselves, 2015 was a boring year for natural gas trading. Once the bottom fell out of the NYMEX market at the beginning of the year, trading remained range bound for the majority of the year. Finally, when the natural gas market did experience some movement it was only […]

By: Matthew Mattingly When discussing natural gas production in the United States, a phrase that I have been using a lot lately is “in the face of.” Although one of my colleagues isn’t fond of the phrase, “in the face of” is just another way to say “even though,” “in defiance of,” or “despite.” To me […]

By: Matthew Mattingly A proposed game changer in the natural gas industry, LNG exports, is set to begin in the United States next month. That is when the Cheniere Energy, a Houston based energy company, is scheduled to start its first production train at the Sabine Pass project located at the Louisiana/Texas border. The export […]