Local Natural Gas Prices Under Utility Deregulation

摘要

Over the past 15 years, state public service commissions in the U.S. have introduced various programs to induce utilities to operate more efficiently and lower consumer prices. Relative success of these programs has been unclear even though numerous case studies have been conducted. Now, using data for all utilities in the continental U.S., we have collected better - and more objective - evidence of the relative performance of the various programs, which include consumer-choice, price caps and sliding scale plans. Briefly: