One Paragraph Summation of Why Prospects for Widespread Expansion of Energy Choice Are Dim

Parties recently filed comments in Ohio's investigation of the retail natural gas market, and the comments of Ohio Partners for Affordable Energy and other low-income consumer advocates (LIA) aptly describe the dim prospects for widespread expansion of energy choice, both in Ohio and nationwide, in the current environment.

"LIA is not aware of any groundswell of customer support for changes in the current approach to providing natural gas used in the service territories of the four largest LDCs. There is no push to eliminate governmental aggregation. There is no outcry against the SCO. There are a number of complaints about marketers that are receiving desultory attention from the Commission (though the staff at the Commission’s Service Monitoring and Enforcement Division does receive good reviews from customers for ironing out problems). SCO prices are at or below the price level available in other states with which Ohio competes in national and international markets, and prices charged by marketers are roughly at or slightly above those rates. Overall, customers seem pretty satisfied with how service is provided though they will always grumble about the size of their bills and the bothersome nature of excessive marketing calls or visits by door-to-door salespeople," the advocates said.

Matters emphasizes, in particular, the observation that there is no, "groundswell of customer support for changes in the current approach to providing natural gas," which is equally applicable in states beyond Ohio (and to electricity as well as gas). Notwithstanding the thousands of commercial customers in the choice queue in Michigan, and similar support, among certain businesses, for choice (or choice expansion) in Arizona and California, there is no groundswell of customer support for retail choice.

Cobbling together other coalitions (retail suppliers, large C&I customers, perhaps some smaller businesses, and sympatric regulators) can only go so far, when it's the mass market, especially residential, customers that are going to be impacted the most (and complain the loudest, including at the ballot box) from any change in market design.

In terms of the Ohio retail gas investigation, there was not much in the way of novel comments. Most retail suppliers favor an adder (termed an assessment in their comments) to the Standard Choice Offer rate to reflect, "the inherent financial value of all avoided costs of SCO service when compared to other CRNGS [competitive] provider products and services," though this recommendation is not shared by all retail suppliers.