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2006 News Releases

Atmos Energy Corporation Requests Review of Rates, Rules and Regulations By Missouri Public Service Commission

JACKSON, Missouri – April 7, 2006 – Atmos Energy Corporation (NYSE: ATO) said today that it will seek its first gas rate increase in Missouri in more than nine years because of increased operating costs and investments to maintain service reliability and safety for its customers.

“We have done everything we possibly can—installing new technologies, improving our work processes and controlling our operating costs—to keep rates down,” said John Paris, president of Atmos Energy’s Mid-States Division. “But, inflation during the period has been over 20 percent, and we no longer can put off asking for a moderate price increase.”

Atmos Energy, which serves approximately 59,800 residential, commercial and industrial natural gas customers in the state, will ask the Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) to increase its revenues by approximately $3,396,000, or 5.88% percent. The rate change would go into effect after PSC approval.

“Atmos Energy has invested approximately $22 million in its Missouri gas delivery system over the past nine years,” said Pat Childers, vice president, rates and regulatory affairs, for the division. The utility operates nearly 2,130 miles of transmission and distribution lines in Missouri .

“We are asking the PSC to review the filing and approve a rate structure that will enable Atmos Energy to continue to provide the excellent service that our customers have come to expect from us,” Childers said.

Atmos Energy plans to conduct public meetings on the rate change in its Missouri service areas, to provide information to customers and answers questions. A date and location for those meetings will be announced in the near future. Some of the communities served by Atmos Energy are Caruthersville, Malden, East Prairie, Charleston, Sikeston, Chaffee, Jackson, Kirksville, Butler, Harrisonville, Hannibal, Bowling Green, Palmyra, Canton, Edina, Rich Hill and Hume.

Atmos Energy Corporation, headquartered in Dallas , is the country’s largest natural gas-only distributor, serving about 3.2 million gas utility customers. Atmos Energy’s utility operations serve more than 1,500 communities in 12 states from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the East to the Rocky Mountains in the West. Atmos Energy’s nonutility operations, organized under Atmos Energy Holdings, Inc., operate in 22 states. They provide natural gas marketing and procurement services to industrial, commercial and municipal customers and manage company-owned natural gas pipeline and storage assets, including one of the largest intrastate natural gas pipeline systems in Texas . For more information, visit www.atmosenergy.com.

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