A month after Nicor Gas’ filing to expand its Customer Selectchoice program to all of its customers was suspended by theIllinois Commerce Commission (ICC), it announced it has received anunanimous approval from the same governing body to continue itspilot program for 2001.

The program extension was initially suspended when the CitizensUtility Board (CUB), a nonprofit utility watchdog group, said it had”concerns” about the way the three-year-old pilot was structured, andasked ICC to investigate (see Daily GPI, Sept. 21; Oct. 9). CUB also hadconcerns that customers were confusing marketer Nicor Energy withutility Nicor Gas, the programs administrator.

The ICC’s decision yesterday will allow all 440,000 business andresidential customers in the 16 communities that were eligible forthe program this year to sign up in 2001. At the close ofenrollment this year, Nicor Gas reported more than 122,000customers took part in the program by selecting alternative gassuppliers during the first three years of the pilot, equating to22% of eligible residential customers and 37% of businesscustomers.

Although Nicor Gas’ Customer Select program has been approvedfor another year, the company is not out of the woods yet. Thecommission is still holding hearings pertaining to the Nicor Gasprogram to investigate CUB’s allegations of wrong-doing by theutility.

George Behrens, Nicor Gas vice president administration, said,”With this transition program in place, we’ll turn our attention toworking with the commission and other parties during the hearingsto provide any necessary information about the program. In light oftoday’s rising natural gas costs, we feel these affected consumerswill want to take another look at the program. We continue to lookforward to the future, when choice is available to all of ourcustomers.”

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