Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 April 2015
The economic distortions that have been caused by federal regulation of natural gas markets have been the subject of many recent studies (Committee for Economic Development [CED]; Brickhill; Hall; MacAvoy and Pindyck; and Means). The most recent policy debate concerns the relative merits of alternatives to the price deregulation schedule of the 1978 Natural Gas Policy Act (NGPA). The range of options runs from freezing natural gas prices at current levels to complete decontrol of natural gas prices by January 1, 1986. Producers of natural gas, pipelines, distribution utilities, and end users all suffer from some sort of economic distortion under the NGPA (CED, pp. 50-60).