Atlanta Gas Light Services has vowed to fight a decision by aGeorgia Public Service Commission hearing officer that wouldprohibit the company from using the name of its utility affiliate,Atlanta Gas Light. The marketing affiliate filed an appeal June 26,contending the initial decision, if upheld, would “reducecompetition in direct violation of the statutory purposes of the[Georgia] Natural Gas Act” when the deregulated market opens thisfall.

AGL said the decision was an “unprecedented, over-broad andpunitive restriction on free speech. Requiring Atlanta Gas LightServices to use a pseudonym and to conceal its true identity willalso deprive Georgia consumers of truthful information that willenable them to make a reasoned choice of a natural gas supplier,”the AGLS appeal states.

The company supported its position with the conclusions of aneconomics professor at the Institute for Mathematical BehavioralSciences at the University of California-Irvine. Arthur De Vany,who is co-author of The Emerging New Order in Natural Gas: Marketsvs. Regulation and has prepared written testimony on competition innatural gas markets for FERC, said he sees “absolutely no reasonwhatsoever for an affiliate marketer not to use the parent’s name.To do so, he added, “actually denies consumers of the right toinformation they might want to use.”

The hearing officer’s ruling concluded, however, that themarketing affiliate should “rely on the reputation it builds as aseparate entity and its own business acumen to secure customers inGeorgia, just as all other marketers.”

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