The Source - Fall 2008 - (Page 9)

first person You heard it from THE SOURCE Welcome to our premier edition of THE SOURCE. One may ask: Why launch a new magazine in an era of ever-increasing electronic communications and media? The short answer is that a meaningful discussion about energy policies or issues cannot be found in bullet points on a one-pager. Since so many e-mails flood our inbox each day, survival requires us to be selective in what we peruse, read, and print. The mission of THE SOURCE is to gather in one place essential information on the most relevant and pressing energy-related issues facing the nation’s public gas utilities that serve more than 1,000 communities and 5 million residential and commercial customers. Its target audiences include: • Gas utility managers; • Locally elected and appointed officials who serve on their governing and oversight boards; • Our nation’s policymakers in Congress and in the federal agencies; and • Other energy, engineering, and financial stakeholders that do business with public gas utilities. The timing for this inaugural issue, Running in Circles, could not be better—a presidential election, a Senate debate on climate change (p. 16), a new law to increase market transparency (p. 21), and a proposed rule for distribution integrity management (p. 26). While our timing is great, recent news is not. We are now injecting $12+ gas into storage (2007 was the previous all-time for July at $6.19); a climate change debate offers questionable and risky assumptions about target reduction goals and their impacts on our economy and consumers; a continuing over-reliance on natural gas for electric generation; and a persistant reluctance to provide environmentally responsible access to an abundant supply of domestic natural gas. During this year’s presidential election, the candidates adopted the term “change,” and each campaigned as the “change agent.” Polls and surveys are clear that voters seek change (i.e., a departure from our current path) in regard to energy and environmental policies. Now more than ever, both sides of the aisle need to work together to provide all Americans with a comprehensive energy plan that meets the needs of consumers in a manner that moves us toward energy independence. Future generations of Americans will be impacted by how we address this moment. THE SOURCE will take this opportunity to bring reasoned, thoughtful discussion and data to energy-related debates. We want to educate and bring information to policymakers so they are better able to make informed decisions that protect consumers, the U.S. energy industry, our economy, and the environment. Finally, THE SOURCE will assist APGA members to achieve their No. 1 priority: The safe and reliable delivery of affordable natural gas at just and reasonable rates. The publication will keep readers current about best practices and technology advances that can improve system safety, reliability, and efficiencies, and reduce operating costs. It is important to us that our target audiences are well-served. We can better accomplish this by knowing your thoughts on where we fall short or how to best improve. Please feel free to contact our editor Kristin Gomez at kgomez@apga.org with any feedback or suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you. Thanks, President & CEO American Public Gas Association THE SOURCE | FALL 2008 , VOL. 1, ISSUE 1 9

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Source - Fall 2008

The Source - Fall 2008 Contents First Person APGA Awards APGA Events Overview Up Next in THE SOURCE Grassroots Connections Climate Change Legislation Market Transparency: An Insider's View Legislative Outlook The Pipeline Marketing Matters Advertisers' Index At Last

The Source - Fall 2008

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