American Gas Association President David Parker yesterdaydismissed industry speculation that the gas LDC group is exploringthe prospect of combining with its electric counterpart, the EdisonElectric Institute.

He emphatically said the AGA was not now in any mergerdiscussions with EEI, nor did it anticipate there would be any suchtalks in the near future. Reports of a possible union of the twotrade groups have dogged Parker ever since he joined AGA more thana year ago due to his previous affiliation with EEI and theincreasingly common membership of the two associations, as well astheir similar legislative and regulatory priorities.

From the outset, “the discussion came up – did I come on boardat AGA to help bring about an amalgamation or a merger…The answeris ‘no,'” Parker told reporters at a press briefing at AGA’sheadquarters in Rosslyn, VA.

He acknowledged that he and Thomas R. Kuhn, EEI’s president, are”very good friends” and “work very closely” because “we recognizethat we have joint membership,” namely combination electric and gasutilities. But, he added, neither association’s board of directorshas ever discussed a consolidation.

Parker didn’t preclude the possibility of an AGA-EEI union being”seriously considered” further down the road, however. “[I]f in thestrategic planning process, somebody started thinking that maybethat’s something you ought to look at X years down the road, therecould be some discussions.”

On a separate issue, officials unveiled a new logo for the LDCassociation, which includes a blue natural gas flame and thegroup’s name in forest green (and less bold) typeface. AGA plans tolaunch the new logo when it moves in mid-March to its new CapitolHill headquarters (400 North Capitol St. NW), which will put itnear to Senate and House offices and the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission.

Also, the group announced that the domain name for AGA’s homepage on the World Wide Web will change from www.aga.com towww.aga.org effective Feb. 15th. It noted that it originally wantedaga.org when it first created its web site several years ago, butit was reserved by the Abrasive Grains Association. The aga.orgaddress has since become available to AGA, and it has sold therights to aga.com to a Swedish industrial gas firm – AGA AB.

Those wishing to contact AGA staff members may continue to usetheir current e-mail addresses until March 15th, according to theLDC group.

“It’s time for a fresh look and a fresh start for AGA as we moveout of the offices we’ve occupied in northern Virginia for nearly30 years and relocate to Capitol Hill to enhance our advocacyefforts and outreach activities on behalf of natural gasutilities,” Parker said.

©Copyright 1999 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. Thepreceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, inwhole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent ofIntelligence Press, Inc.