Nearly half of the U.S. households with natural gas servicealready can or soon will be able to buy their fuel from acompetitive supplier, demonstrating how quickly competition isgrowing in the natural gas industry, according to a study by theAmerican Gas Association.

In an updated report released yesterday, AGA noted that nearly49%, or 26 million of the 54 million U.S. households with naturalgas service, could now or will soon be able to buy their naturalgas from a non-utility supplier. Customer choice has steadily grownin the past four years, with customer choice offered to fewer thantwo million customers nationwide before 1996, according to AGA.

The report, “Providing New Services to Residential Natural GasCustomers: A Summary of Customer Choice Pilot Programs andInitiatives,” said that competition exists in 23 states and theDistrict of Columbia. About 20%, or nearly one in five householdswith a choice option, already has switched suppliers, said thereport.

“With energy prices on the rise, households that may not havepreviously considered purchasing their natural gas from a marketermay be thinking about it,” said Bruce McDowell, AGA director ofpolicy analysis. “While there is no guarantee of savings, consumersmay find some of the non-utility programs to be attractive.”

Unlike traditional programs, where natural gas utilitiespurchased natural gas for residential customers and passed alongthe cost of the gas commodity through monthly bills, customerchoice allows consumers to shop around for a supplier and have thegas delivered to them by the local natural gas utility.

AGA reports that more than 95% of large-volume natural gascustomers, including factories and electric power plants, mayselect their own natural gas supplier. Also, nearly 70% ofcommercial natural gas customers, such as hospitals and officebuildings, have a choice in suppliers.

New York, which offers a statewide customer choice program,leads the country in the potential number of customers who maychoose their supplier, with 4.1 million customers and a potentialdemand of 339.5 Bcf. California, which offers customer choice toabout 4.07 million customers, is second with a potential demand of254.9 Bcf. Pennsylvania is third, offering choice to 2.49 millioncustomers and a demand of 217.9 Bcf, while New Jersey is fourthwith 2.25 million customers and 1.96 Bcf demand.

AGA represents 189 local natural gas utilities that delivernatural gas to 60 million homes and businesses in all 50 states.For more information on the report, visit the website atwww.aga.org.

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