Almost a month after its preliminary recommendations were agreed upon, the Blue Ribbon Natural Gas Task Force delivered to Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes on Wednesday a 35-page final report outlining its proposals for fixing the natural gas system in the state. As expected, the final report proposed the reinstallation of a regulated supplier into the current mix of unregulated retail marketers instead of returning to a monopoly structure (see Daily GPI, Jan. 11).

Formed by Barnes late last year, the 19-member task force — which consists of state legislators, consumer advocates, state officials and all five commissioners from the Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) — agreed that the state should not give up on the more than three-year-old initiative. Now that the report has been submitted to the governor’s office, Barnes will go over the report and make his own recommendations to the state legislature.

Now that it appears that a single regulated supplier will be put back into the marketplace with the rest of the unregulated suppliers, the question turns to focus on which company take on that role. An official said that some consumers might feel more relaxed if they had the option to choose a regulated supplier. The regulated supplier also would likely become the provider of last resort as well.

A battle already has begun over which company will become the regulated supplier. The task force said a company should be chosen through an “open and fair” process. Atlanta Gas Light and Georgia Power appear to be the early front-runners. However, the possibility does remain that a retail marketer or cooperative could take on the position.

“We have done a business case and floated it around the state capitol,” said John Sell, spokesman for Georgia Power. “We are waiting to see if someone picks it up and files it as legislation. I think everybody is waiting to see where the governor is going to come with his legislation on this whole issue.” Sell said there have been several bills already introduced. He expects Barnes will endorse one of the bills or draft his own legislation in the near future. He said Georgia Power would not provide any details on its plan until it becomes part of a bill.

Georgia Power throwing its hat into the ring did not sit well with AGL Resources CEO and new Chairman Paula Rosput. According to an article in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Rosput was less than pleased that Georgia Power was eyeing the regulated supplier position. Atlanta Gas Light is a subsidiary of AGL Resources.

“Over my dead body will they be in this business,” Rosput said at a shareholder conference last Friday, according to the newspaper. She added that Atlanta Gas Light Co. should play a “central role” in any remedy for deregulation, not Georgia Power, which currently only serves electric customers. The executive said that putting Georgia Power into that position would not provide the best opportunity for fixing the marketplace.

“If the legislature decides to implement a regulated option for the state, Atlanta Gas Light feels that they are the most obvious choice and best suited to handle that role,” said Russ Williams, AGL spokesman. Before deregulation began a few years ago, Williams said Atlanta Gas Light had been the regulated provider for almost 150 years. When Georgia’s natural gas markets deregulated three years ago, Atlanta Gas Light ceased selling gas and became a distribution-only company, allowing unregulated suppliers to come into the state to market gas.

Williams added that Georgia Power’s service territory does not match Atlanta Gas Light’s service territory. “Atlanta Gas Light serves in total about 1.5 million customers and Georgia Power’s service territories don’t cover all of those customer territories,” the spokesman said. “[Georgia Power] covers about 60%.”

In addition to reaching a consensus on recommending the installation of a regulated marketer, the task force’s final report also included a host of other proposals. The list includes:

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