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Beginning in the mid-1980s, several federal initiatives created dramatic changes in the natural gas industry. The desire to introduce competition that extends from the well-head to the city gate resulted in restructured industry entities, the shifting of responsibilities from pipelines to the local utilities and the emergence of many new, unregulated market players.
These initiatives began a restructuring process which provided gas utilities, gas marketers, and large industrial customers the opportunity to buy gas directly from hundreds of different producers at competitive market prices, rather than from only a small number of pipelines at regulated prices. Although these changes were significant, most customers were unaware of them.
Initially, only the largest industrial customers participated directly in these markets. These changes have begun to filter down to smaller customers; many markets, especially the residential and small commercial markets, have begun to unbundle gas services.
The last year the natural gas market was full regulated was 1985.
For detailed information about the way gas industry restructuring has been implemented across the country, see State-by-State Status of Gas Utility Restructuring, located on the DOE FEMP utility management Web site.
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