Atlanta Gas Light history

In 1884 the Gate City Company erected the Gate City Gas Works and began advertising for customers, claiming its "water gas" was better than Atlanta Gas Light's "coal gas." Healey in turn slashed rates and appealed to Atlantans' loyalty.

In 1887 Atlanta, which had profited greatly from its one-third ownership of the company, sold its shares to raise funds for the Georgia Institute of Technology.

On April 13, 1889, the United Gas Improvement Company (UGI), which months previously had bought the Gate City Gas Works, announced it had gained control of Atlanta Gas Light.

Not until the anthracite coal strike of 1902, when coal could not be bought at any price, did large numbers of customers switch to gas cookstoves, which eventually became a bigger business than gas lighting had ever been.

In mid-1903, after the great switch-over, the company had 122 miles of mains, 11,000 customers, and an average daily send-out of 1.6 million cubic feet.

In 1912, he and his associates reorganized their Georgia holdings to better exploit their capital-raising potential.

In 1928 Southern Natural Gas of Birmingham announced plans to build a natural gas pipeline from Louisiana to Atlanta and offer higher BTU natural gas at lower prices than Atlanta Gas Light.

Georgia Power sold AGL in 1929.

In 1930 it sent out 274 million cubic feet of 1000 BTU natural gas.

Finally, on November 1, 1947, after 58 years of holding company control, Atlanta Gas Light once again became an independent, investor-owned utility.

Expansion and Industry Shortages, the Lee Tenure: 1960-76

The winter of 1976-77, one of the coldest on record, put extraordinary demands on the company.

Following the complete deregulation of natural gas prices at the wellhead in 1985, the company's customers enjoyed a lengthy decline in gas prices.

Despite the regulatory agreement, which helped to even out receipts in unseasonably warm winters such as that of 1988-89, profits at Atlanta Gas Light lagged.

And yet there was opportunity in the face of challenge, symbolized by the fact that in February 1996, Atlanta Gas Light had a record day of sales, when it used 2.043 billion cubic feet of natural gas during a single 24-hour period.

The AGL annual report for 1997 stated that the company expected to see six to seven percent annual growth during the next five years.

He returned to Southern Company in 2006, serving as finance manager for Southern Generation/Southern Power and then as assistant to the chief financial officer of Southern Company.