Natural Gas Choice Programs
Seminole currently offers customer choice programs in Michigan, Ohio, Nebraska and Wyoming
Wyoming Choice Program
The Wyoming Choice Gas Program selection period is currently CLOSED. Enrollment dates were from April 8th, 2011 thru April 28th, 2011. If you have a new premise and have received a ballot, please call (877)807-5193 for current pricing. Click Here for details.
Nebraska Agricultural Choice Program
The Nebraska Agricultural Choice enrollment period is currently OPEN. Enrollment dates are from February 6th, 2012 thru February 28th, 2012. Click Here for details.
Nebraska Residential/Commercial Choice Program
The Nebraska Choice enrollment period is currently CLOSED. Enrollment dates were from April 15th, 2011 thru April 28th, 2011. Click Here for details.
Michigan & Ohio Choice Programs
Seminole Energy Services operates as Lakeshore Energy Services to manage the choice programs for Michigan and Ohio. Click Here for details.
History
Prior to 1978, gas producers sold gas to interstate pipeline companies, which in turn sold it to local gas utilities, which then sold the gas to end users, such as residential customers and small businesses. A series of federal government initiatives, beginning with the 1978 Natural Gas Policy Act, changed all that.
The price at which producers could sell their gas to interstate pipelines and the price at which interstate pipelines could sell their gas to local gas utilities were regulated by the federal government. State authorities regulated the price that gas utilities charged to their end users. Gas utilities held long-term contracts with the interstate pipeline companies, while the latter held long-term contracts with producers. Both types of contracts were typically for 20 years or longer and were based on regulated prices.
Under the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978, Congress began a process that ended federal control over the price of gas at the wellhead. This process also set in motion a series of public policy changes by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state regulators that has culminated in “customer choice” programs for residential and small commercial natural gas users.
Under these programs, homes and small businesses can choose their supplier of natural gas, much as they now choose their long-distance telephone provider. Under a customer choice program, non-utility gas suppliers, called gas marketers, purchase gas and arrange for its transportation to the local gas utility. Local gas utilities, while no longer purchasing gas directly for their customers, continue to deliver it to homes and businesses.
Large commercial and industrial users in many states were the first to buy natural gas directly from a supplier of their choice, rather than as part of a bundled supply and delivery service provided by a regulated utility. Now residential and small business consumers are beginning to enjoy the same freedom of choice, which in most cases means lower prices.
Savings are defined as the difference between what the gas utility would charge and what the gas marketer charges for gas delivered to a utility’s city gate. Customer savings come from a combination of gas marketers’ savings on upstream transportation and storage costs and on the cost of gas. In some states, customers are also achieving savings because natural gas sold by marketers is subject to fewer state and local taxes than gas sold by local gas utilities. The costs of natural gas, its transportation and storage, and subsequent local delivery are incorporated into monthly gas bills.
Click the following link for additional information on choice programs in your area: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/natural_gas/restructure/restructure.html
Sources: GAO report, titled Energy Deregulation – Status of Natural Gas Customer Choice Programs; An Overview and History of Gas Deregulation compiled by the LIHEAP Clearinghouse, April 1990.
http://www.liheap.ncat.org/dereg/gasoview.htm