Natural Gas Choice
Natural Gas Choice programs in United States of America allow residential consumers and other small volume gas users to purchase natural gas from someone other than their traditional utility company. With Natural Gas Choice programs, customers can either purchase from their natural gas utility or choose to receive their gas supply from non-utility Choice suppliers. Large commercial and industrial consumers have had the option of purchasing the natural gas commodity separately from natural gas services for many years. Natural Gas Choice Overview Currently, 21 States and the District of Columbia have legislation or existing programs that allow Natural Gas Choice Programs. Enrollment in “customer choice” programs increased in 2008 for the third year in a row. Overall, more than 13 percent or about 4.7 million of the approximately 35 million residential natural gas consumers with access to choice were buying natural gas from marketers as of December 2008. The availability and characteristics of these customer choice programs vary widely from state to state. For instance, some states allow customers to participate in Choice programs, but lack of natural gas supplier participation has precluded the development of a competitive natural gas market. Even in fully developed competitive markets enrollment varies widely.