Almost a month and a half after being excommunicated fromColumbia Gas of Ohio’s Customer Choice program for failure todeliver gas to its customers in August, Ohio marketer Energy Maxhas found itself at the epicenter of a complaint lodged by the OhioConsumers Council (OCC) in the interests of the marketer’scustomers.

The council said after an investigation and unsuccessful attemptsto negotiate with Energy Max on behalf of its 8,000 Northeast Ohiocustomers, it has requested the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio(PUCO) to find that Energy Max acted inappropriately and in violationof Ohio Law by failing to deliver gas to its customers (see Daily GPI,Sept. 11). Energy Max said it got caughtup in this summer’s price spike, and simply ran out of cash.

“We would like to get the commission to give us an affirmativeruling that Energy Max has broken the rules, which will give us anadvantage if we go to civil court to seek damages,” said OCCspokeswoman Maureen Miller. “In the end we are trying to put moneyback in peoples’ pockets.”

Energy Max’s customers had fixed rate contracts between $0.315per ccf and $0.465 per ccf. When Energy Max failed to deliver,Columbia Gas was forced to become supplier of last resort andimpose its $0.624 per ccf on Energy Max’s old customers. Eventhough these customers still have the choice to sign up withanother marketer, if they are still with Columbia Gas they aresubject to the current regulated price of $0.738 per ccf .

“We will do everything within our power to see that each andevery customer receives the compensation they deserve,” said RobertS. Tongren, Ohio Consumers’ Counsel. “It is an insult to thesuccess of the Customer CHOICEr program, and a violation of thesuppliers code of conduct, to fail to provide reliable service andgas delivery to all participating residential consumers.”

The OCC said it will continue to monitor all of Ohio’s naturalgas choice programs to protect the over 3 million natural gascustomers in the state.

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