PNY Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc.

Touts Natural Gas as America's Responsible Energy Choice CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Piedmont Natural Gas (NYSE:PNY) Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas E. Skains was elected Chairman of the American Gas Association (AGA) by AGA's Board of Directors during the organization's annual corporate meeting this week in Washington, D.C. The AGA represents more than 200 local energy companies that deliver natural gas to 64 million natural gas customers nationwide -- approximately 92% of all natural gas customers in the United States. In remarks before the association's membership, Mr. Skains commented that, "Natural gas is uniquely positioned to play a vital role in our nation's energy future by providing both near-term and long-term solutions to America's energy and environmental goals. At a time when Americans across our country are faced with economic uncertainty and challenge, are concerned about energy costs and climate change and are concerned about our energy security and dependence on foreign oil, natural gas offers customers a responsible energy choice. Natural gas is the cleanest burning of all fossil fuels. Its delivery from the source of production to the site of end use is extremely efficient. And, with access and infrastructure development, domestic supplies of natural gas are abundant and can be efficiently delivered to market to meet our nation's growing appetite for energy." In his role as the AGA Chairman, Mr. Skains will work with the association's membership and staff to communicate the promise of natural gas to policymakers, regulators, the financial community and other key constituencies. Mr. Skains joined Piedmont Natural Gas in 1995 as the Company's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Supply Services and directed Piedmont's commercial natural gas activities. In 2002, Mr. Skains was named President and Chief Operating Officer of Piedmont and then in 2003 was named its Chief Executive Officer and Chairman. Prior to his joining Piedmont Natural Gas, Mr. Skains was Senior Vice President of Transportation and Customer Services at Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corporation in Houston, Texas. About Piedmont Natural Gas Piedmont Natural Gas is an energy services company primarily engaged in the distribution of natural gas to more than 1 million residential, commercial and industrial utility customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including 61,000 customers served by municipalities who are wholesale customers. Our subsidiaries are invested in joint venture, energy-related businesses, including unregulated retail natural gas marketing, interstate natural gas storage and intrastate natural gas transportation. More information about Piedmont Natural Gas is available at http://www.piedmontng.com/ . DATASOURCE: Piedmont Natural Gas CONTACT: David Trusty, +1-704-731-4391 or +1-704-507-6393, , or Loree Elswick, +1-704-731-4091 or +1-704-575-7693, , both of Piedmont Natural Gas Web site: http://www.piedmontng.com/

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