ATLANTA - Requiring consumers to choose a natural gas marketer or else be assigned to one was a major flaw of Georgia's 1997 gas deregulation law, according to a study of deregulated utilities in five states. <br>
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The study by the National Center for Appropriate Technology, a Montana-based nonprofit group, examined gas and electricity markets in Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Texas. <br>
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In the other states, consumers had the option of remaining with the longtime monopoly supplier after deregulation. In Georgia, the 1.5 million homes and businesses on Atlanta Gas Light Co.'s pipeline system had to choose among a number of marketers, including Georgia Natural Gas, a newly created marketing subsidiary of Atlanta Gas Light. <br>
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``This requirement resulted in a situation marked by confusion, complaints, unexpected high prices, an unprecedented number of disconnections, high (numbers of past-due bills), large-scale public dissatisfaction, and finally, corrective actions by the state's governor and Legislature,'' the study report released Tuesday said. <br>
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Other problems were an initial failure to designate a ``last resort'' supplier for consumers who were unable to purchase gas, and allowing marketers to take over billing and disconnect customers for nonpayment, the study concluded. <br>
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``Georgia's natural gas program is the model for what can go wrong when well-designed consumer protection measures are either not adopted or not enforced at the outset of the retail competition program,'' the report said. <br>
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Barbara Alexander, a consultant who wrote the study's section on Georgia, faulted the 1997 law for its assumption that free market forces would protect consumers, and that all regulators had to do was ``get out of the way and let it work.'' <br>
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Consumer protection measures such as those enacted by the Legislature this year should be in place ``before you flick the switch,'' Alexander said in a conference call with reporters.
