Choosing a gas company? (Columbia: live, price, shop)

[DomerJen]

There are three choices in my area:

Columbia
Dominion People's
Equitable

Does anyone have an opinion on any of them?

[greg42]

I can't find a page on gas like there is on electricity, but it works exactly the same way. In other words, the original company that set up your lines remains in charge of "distribution" and will provide you with connection, billing and service in the event of an outage. You can choose a company to provide gas and transmission, and the rates may or may not be less. But there is nothing really to consider there but price and how long the price is locked in, whether there's a contract and early termination fee, those sorts of things. You don't need to evaluate for how well they react to an outage because you don't have a choice for that part.

Out here we have Columbia for distribution. I've never switched away from them for the rest because for the vast majority of the time I've lived here, they've been the cheapest anyway.

Basically, the company you're most likely to interact with is one you can't actually choose but are instead still just stuck with. But you may be able to shop amongst a couple for pricing. The competition isn't really like the electricity has just gotten to be again, though. There's nothing special to offer like renewable energy or anything. Gas all has to come out of the ground.