Genie Energy

Genie Energy is an American energy holding company headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. Its principal activities have included retail electricity and natural-gas supply, energy advisory services, and exploration of conventional oil and unconventional hydrocarbon resources. The company operates through several businesses, notably Genie Retail Energy, Genie Retail Energy International, Genie Energy Services, and Genie Energy Oil and Gas. The company grew out of IDT Corporation, the telecommunications and technology group founded and led by Howard Jonas. In 2004, IDT began diversifying into retail energy by establishing an energy supply business and enrolling its first customers. That activity eventually became the foundation for Genie Energy. In October 2011, Genie was separated from IDT as an independent publicly traded company, and its Class B common stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GNE. Howard Jonas remained the company's founder and chairman. Genie Retail Energy supplies electricity and natural gas in deregulated U.S. markets. Its customers have included households and small and medium-sized businesses, while its commercial natural-gas activities have also served customers in Florida. Rather than functioning as a regulated local utility, the retail businesses purchase energy in wholesale markets and compete with incumbent utilities and other retail energy providers. Product structures have included fixed-rate and variable-rate plans, conventional electricity, renewable or green electricity, and carbon-offset natural-gas offerings. The company's U.S. footprint has included New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Ohio, Rhode Island, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maine, Delaware, Texas, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Genie expanded its retail portfolio through acquisitions and international ventures. In 2013, its IDT Energy subsidiary acquired Diversegy, a Dallas-based commercial energy advisory business, together with its Epiq Energy network-marketing channel. In 2016, Genie acquired Retail Energy Holdings, adding the Town Square Energy brand and its customer meters. In 2017, it acquired Mirabito Natural Gas, a Florida-based commercial natural-gas supplier, and announced a joint venture intended to develop retail energy operations in the United Kingdom. The company also entered Japan through Genie Energy Japan and acquired a majority interest in Finnish renewable-electricity supplier Lumo Energia in 2019. The company's energy-exploration activities have attracted greater public controversy than its retail business. Through Genie Energy Oil and Gas and its Afek Oil and Gas subsidiary, Genie pursued conventional oil exploration in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The United Nations and many governments regard the Golan Heights as Syrian territory under Israeli occupation, and human-rights organizations argued that exploration there raised questions under international law. Afek conducted geophysical work and exploratory drilling, but in 2017 suspended the program after concluding that its target zone did not contain commercially producible quantities of oil or natural gas. Genie and related ventures also explored oil-shale technologies. American Shale Oil, a joint venture with Total, worked on an in-situ process in Colorado before the partners closed the venture in 2016. Israel Energy Initiatives pursued an oil-shale project in Israel's Shefela region, but a planning committee rejected a building permit in 2014, effectively ending the project. Genie Energy Mongolia and other oil-shale initiatives are no longer active according to the referenced company history. The company remains a diversified energy enterprise, with its retail businesses forming the most clearly established operating platform and its exploration projects representing a more speculative and historically important part of its corporate identity. Its Finnish subsidiary Lumo Energia also faced consumer-protection criticism after terminating fixed-term, fixed-price electricity contracts in 2022 during a period of severe energy-market volatility.

Genie Energy developed from IDT Corporation's diversification into retail energy. In 2004, IDT, under founder Howard Jonas, launched an energy supply business and enrolled its first customers. The activity operated as a retail energy provider, purchasing electricity and natural gas in wholesale markets and selling supply plans to customers in deregulated jurisdictions. In October 2011, Genie Energy was spun off from IDT as an independent public company. Its Class B common stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under GNE. Jonas became founder and chairman, while the company organized its operations into retail energy, international retail energy, energy services, and oil-and-gas businesses. The retail platform expanded through acquisitions. In 2013, IDT Energy acquired Diversegy, a Dallas-based commercial energy advisory company, as well as its Epiq Energy network-marketing channel. In November 2016, Genie acquired Retail Energy Holdings, adding Town Square Energy and its customer meters. In 2017, Genie Retail Energy acquired Mirabito Natural Gas, a Florida commercial-gas supplier, and announced a joint venture intended to establish a retail-energy presence in the United Kingdom. The company later launched Genie Energy Japan and, in January 2019, acquired a majority stake in Finland's Lumo Energia, a renewable-electricity supplier. Genie's exploration division pursued several technically and politically sensitive projects. Afek Oil and Gas received a 36-month petroleum exploration license in 2013 for approximately 400 square kilometers in the Golan Heights. The area is occupied by Israel and is recognized by the United Nations as Syrian territory. Afek conducted geophysical tests and drilled exploratory wells, but suspended the program in 2017 after determining that the target formation did not contain commercially producible quantities of oil or gas. The project drew criticism from human-rights organizations that argued exploration in occupied territory could conflict with international law. The company also participated in oil-shale ventures. American Shale Oil, a joint venture with Total, received a U.S. Bureau of Land Management research, development, and demonstration lease in Colorado's Piceance Basin. Its proposed process used conduction, convection, and reflux to produce hydrocarbons from deeply buried oil shale. The venture was closed in 2016 and its pilot facilities were removed. Israel Energy Initiatives, founded in 2008, sought to develop Israeli oil shale using an in-situ conversion process. Although it obtained an exploration-license extension in 2011, an Israeli planning committee rejected a building permit in 2014, effectively ending the project. Environmental groups and local residents had opposed the plan because of possible effects on groundwater, rural land, tourism, and greenhouse-gas emissions. A later controversy involved Lumo Energia's treatment of fixed-price customers during the 2022 European energy crisis. Lumo terminated fixed-term and fixed-price contracts held by roughly 8,000 consumers, offering compensation that the Finnish consumer-protection authority regarded as insufficient. The episode illustrated the regulatory and reputational risks of operating retail energy businesses during extreme wholesale-price volatility. Genie Energy's current identity therefore combines a core retail-energy business with international expansion and a history of high-profile exploration ventures. The company has maintained a presence in competitive energy markets while discontinuing or suspending several technically difficult and politically contentious resource-development projects.

• 2019

  Majority stake in Lumo Energia acquired

  [1]Genie Energyen.wikipedia.org

  Genie Retail Energy acquired majority ownership of the Finnish renewable-electricity supplier.

• 2017

  Golan Heights exploration suspended

  [1]Genie Energyen.wikipedia.org

  Afek halted drilling after failing to identify commercially producible quantities in its target zone.

• 2016

  American Shale Oil venture closed

  [1]Genie Energyen.wikipedia.org

  Genie and Total ended their Colorado oil-shale joint venture.

• 2016

  Retail Energy Holdings acquired

  [1]Genie Energyen.wikipedia.org

  Town Square Energy became part of Genie's retail-energy portfolio.

• 2013

  Diversegy and Epiq Energy acquired

  [1]Genie Energyen.wikipedia.org

  The acquisition expanded Genie's commercial energy advisory and customer-acquisition capabilities.

• 2013

  Afek received Golan Heights license

  [1]Genie Energyen.wikipedia.org

  Afek Oil and Gas obtained an exploration license covering approximately 400 square kilometers.

• 2011

  Genie became an independent public company

  [1]Genie Energyen.wikipedia.org

  Genie Energy was spun off from IDT and began NYSE trading under GNE.

• 2004

  IDT entered retail energy

  [1]Genie Energyen.wikipedia.org

  IDT Corporation launched an energy supply business and enrolled its first retail energy customers.

A diversified, asset-light energy company combining retail energy supply in deregulated markets with international energy ventures, advisory services, and historically pursued exploration projects.

• Energy retail · 2004

  Retail electricity plans

  Genie's retail energy companies supply electricity to residential and small or medium-sized commercial customers in deregulated U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Plans have included fixed-rate and variable-rate structures, allowing the company to compete with incumbent utilities and other retail energy providers. The portfolio has included both conventional and renewable-oriented electricity options.

• Energy retail · 2004

  Natural-gas supply

  Genie Retail Energy supplies natural gas to residential and commercial customers in competitive energy markets. Its offerings have included conventional supply plans and clean or carbon-offset gas programs. Commercial natural-gas operations have also served customers in Florida through the Mirabito Natural Gas business.

• Renewable energy retail

  Lumo Energia renewable electricity

  Lumo Energia is a Finnish renewable-electricity supplier in which Genie Retail Energy acquired a majority stake. The business forms part of Genie's international retail-energy activities and has marketed electricity products to Finnish consumers.

• Exploration · 2013

  Oil and gas exploration

  Through Genie Energy Oil and Gas and Afek Oil and Gas, Genie pursued conventional oil and gas exploration in the Golan Heights. The program involved geophysical testing and several exploratory wells but was suspended in 2017 after the target zone was assessed as lacking commercially producible resources.

• Unconventional energy · 2006

  Oil-shale development

  Genie participated in oil-shale development through American Shale Oil, Israel Energy Initiatives, and Genie Energy Mongolia. The ventures investigated in-situ or thermal conversion approaches, but the American and Israeli projects were closed or effectively terminated and the referenced company history identifies these initiatives as no longer active.

• 2022

  Lumo Energia fixed-price contract terminations

  Lumo terminated fixed-term, fixed-price electricity agreements for approximately 8,000 customers during the energy crisis. The Finnish consumer-protection authority regarded the offered compensation as inadequate.

  Source

• 2014

  Opposition to Israeli oil-shale development

  Environmental groups and local residents challenged the Israel Energy Initiatives project over possible aquifer contamination, ecological damage, economic uncertainty, and climate impacts.

  Source

• 2013

  Golan Heights exploration controversy

  Afek's exploration license in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights was criticized by human-rights groups, which argued that resource exploration in occupied Syrian territory raised issues under international law.

  Source

Read more

• 2014Campaign against the Israel Energy Initiatives oil-shale project

  Israel

  Environmental organizations and residents of the Adullam area opposed IEI's proposed oil-shale development, citing risks to groundwater, rural landscapes, tourism, and greenhouse-gas reduction efforts.

  Outcome. An Israeli planning committee rejected the project's building permit, effectively ending the development.

  Source

• 2017

  Suspension of Afek drillingStrategy

  Background

  Exploratory drilling in the Golan Heights was intended to test a potentially significant oil and gas target.

  Action taken

  Afek suspended its drilling program after concluding that the target zone did not contain commercially producible quantities.

  Aftermath

  The conventional exploration program stopped without establishing a commercial producing field.

  Source

• 2016

  Closure of American Shale Oil ventureStrategy

  Background

  Genie and Total had investigated a process for producing hydrocarbons from deep oil shale in Colorado.

  Action taken

  The partners closed the joint venture and decommissioned its pilot facilities.

  Aftermath

  The Colorado oil-shale initiative ended and was no longer part of Genie's active development portfolio.

  Source

• 2011

  Spin-off from IDT CorporationStrategy

  Background

  IDT's retail-energy activities had grown from the diversification initiative launched in 2004.

  Action taken

  Genie Energy was established as an independent public company and listed its Class B common stock on the NYSE.

  Aftermath

  The spin-off created a standalone energy group combining retail supply, services, and exploration activities.

  Source

1. 1Genie Energyen.wikipedia.org