Natural gas regulatory dilemma: a market solution, another complex compromise, or the status quo

A review of the regulatory structure provided by the Natural Gas Policy Act (NGPA) of 1978 and a comparison of the Act with provisions in major pending House and Senate bills finds that Congress is still struggling to resolve the natural gas regulation/deregulation debate. The bills offer a variety of alternatives ranging from partial decontrol to recontrol. They reflect the differences between the parties in interest: the producers and pipelines, distributors, residential consumers, and industrial consumers. The enactment of any one alternative will benefit some parties at the expense of others. The major issues remain pricing, contracts, market access, market growth, and pipeline regulation. The evidence suggests that a properly functioning natural gas market requires an expansive deregulatory alternative, but the current bills concentrate on the pricing issue and short-term solutions. 1 table.