AGL chief upset at Georgia Power move toward gas business

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Posted 8:03AM on Saturday, February 2, 2002

ATLANTA - A step by Georgia Power Co. to enter the natural gas market has raised the ire of the head of the state's largest gas company. ``Over my dead body will they be in this business,'' AGL Resources chief executive Paula Rosput said Friday at the company's annual shareholders' meeting. AGL is the parent company of Atlanta Gas Light Co., which distributes natural gas to the state's deregulated gas marketers. AGL's marketing arm, Georgia Natural Gas, is Georgia's leading marketer, serving more than 550,000 customers. Rosput, who was named later in the day as the chairman of the AGL board of directors, said she was ``very distressed'' when she learned two weeks ago that Georgia Power was circulating a proposal at the Capitol to take on the role of regulated gas provider. Establishing a regulated provider is one suggested remedy for high prices and other problems that have developed since the gas market was deregulated three years ago. Rosput said Atlanta Gas Light, and not Georgia Power, should play a ``central role'' in any efforts to improve the system. She said she had called Georgia Power officials to express her displeasure at the utility's position. Officials of the electric company say they were urged by state leaders to advance a plan for becoming a regulated gas provider. ``This is not about a dispute between AGL and Georgia Power,'' company spokesman John Sell said. But Rep. Mark Burkhalter, R-Alpharetta, who has been closely involved in a debate over deregulation of the gas business, sees a conflict developing. ``It's very clear that what Georgia Power has proposed is going to take some money away from AGL,'' Burkhalter said. ``It's a clash of business and reputation and politics.'' Atlanta Gas Light was once Georgia's only gas provider. Price and services were regulated by the Public Service Commission. Deregulation was supposed to help consumers by establishing competition at the retail level, but customers have been upset because of high prices and problems with billing and customer service. The gas marketers have been saddled with bad debt from nonpayment of bills during the soaring prices of last winter. In addition to providing regulated gas providers as an alternative to the deregulated market, other proposals before the Legislature include: - a return to a regulated monopoly. - creating a ``last resort'' provider for the poor. - allowing nonprofit electric membership corporations to market natural gas.