PITTSBURGH, May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The Pennsylvania Public Utility
Commission's precedent-setting decision yesterday to allow greater competition
in the electric utility markets in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions
will give Pennsylvania consumers one of the best opportunities in the country
to benefit from utility deregulation, according to Steven E. Winberg, director
of energy policy for Consolidated Natural Gas Company.
CNG, through its retail services division, is the country's largest
provider of unregulated retail energy services in the nation. It currently
has some 250,000 customers in Ohio and Pennsylvania who buy competitively
priced gas, electricity or other related products and services. In
Pennsylvania, its services are sold under the Peoples Plus brand name.
Noting that electric deregulation programs have been slow to get off the
ground in many states, Winberg praised the Commission and its chairman, John
M. Quain, for a "realistic approach to a difficult problem. It's not easy to
change decades and decades of practice in utility regulation. But the
Commission worked forthrightly with every interested party in this matter to
come up with an equitable approach. Based on this precedent, I think we can
see that deregulation can proceed in Pennsylvania quickly, smoothly, and in
the consumers' best interests."
Winberg said that the Commission's plan "will allow a wide variety of
energy suppliers to compete for the consumer's business and will provide
consumers with significant opportunities for energy savings." He sees
companies offering both price competition and competition based on providing
consumers with a variety of energy-related home services.
Consolidated Natural Gas Company (NYSE: CNG) is one of the nation's
largest producers, transporters, distributors, and retail marketers of natural
gas. The company's natural gas transmission and distribution operations serve
customers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, New York and other
states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. CNG explores for and
produces oil and natural gas in the United States and Canada. The company
also selectively participates in energy businesses abroad.
CNG's recent news releases are available 24 hours a day on the Internet,
by fax machine, or by voice recording. On the Internet, use CNG's Web site:
http://www.cng.com For faxing, call 1-800-758-5804 on a touch-tone phone and enter
CNG's extension number, which is 203456. From a menu, you will then be able
to select releases that will be faxed to you immediately without charge. For
voice recordings, call 1-888-CNG-NEWS. This line is toll-free.
SOURCE Consolidated Natural Gas Company
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Related links:
http://www.cng.com
CONTACT:
John Conti of CNG, 412-690-1133
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