315 



switching? Under the current market conditions, there does not 



appear to be sufficient incentive to encourage existing electric 



space and water heating customers to switch to natural gas. 



Natural gas does enjoy a price advantage compared to electricity, 



but that by itself is not sufficient to cause energy consumers to 



spend the money necessary to convert existing systems from 



electricity to natural gas. In fact, many of the promotional 



programs now used by BPA and the electric utilities have exactly 



the opposite effect and discourage, even prevent, the use of 



natural gas for space and water heating. Some of the so-called 



conservation incentive programs such as Super Good Cents and 



Manufactured Housing Acquisition Program (MAP) have actually been 



used to inhibit a customer from choosing natural gas as a primary 



heating or water heating source. BPA has admitted in a recent 



report that " new residential program incentives as currently 



designed do adversely affect fuel choice. " BPA cites a 



relatively small percentage of homes (13 percent) that were 



adversely influenced by the Super Good Cents incentives. In 



6 



