NiSource Inc. is one of the largest fully regulated utility companies in the United States, serving approximately 3.5 million natural gas customers and 500,000 electric customers across six states through its local Columbia Gas and NIPSCO brands. The company, based in Merrillville, Indiana, has more than 8,000 employees. As of 2018, NiSource is the sole Indiana-based utility company. History NiSource was founded in 1912 as the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, which merged with several other companies to become the Columbia Gas and Electric Corporation. Under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, Columbia was forced to reorganize its subsidiaries and eventually spun off its electric utilities, becoming the Columbia Gas System. In 2000, NiSource merged with Columbia Energy Group, but in 2015, NiSource was spun off from Columbia Pipeline Group. The next year, Columbia was acquired by TransCanada Corporation. Company operations NiSource's natural gas utilities provide domestically produced supplies of natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers via nearly 60,000 miles of pipeline and related facilities in six states: Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. NiSource provides electric energy to nearly 500,000 customers, all located in northern Indiana. NiSource's electric operations include power generation, transmission and local distribution, as well as wholesale and electric transmission transactions. NiSource uses both traditional and renewable generation sources, including natural gas, hydroelectric, wind, and coal generated supplies, providing a total system operating net capability of more than 3,000 megawatts. NiSource has had a climate change policy in place since 2009. In 2015, NiSource was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability—North America Index for the second year in a row and for the ninth time since 1999. Internal organization NiSource operates seven local utilities in its service region: Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) Columbia Gas of Ohio Columbia Gas of Kentucky Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania Columbia Gas of Maryland Columbia Gas of Virginia Recent corporate actions On July 1, 2015, NiSource separated Columbia Pipeline Group (NYSE: CPGX) into a stand-alone publicly traded company. Each NiSource shareholder at the time of the separation received one share of Columbia Pipeline Group for each share of NiSource. The separation of Columbia Pipeline Group included Columbia Gas Transmission, Columbia Gulf Transmission, Columbia Midstream Group, its ownership in Columbia Pipeline Partners (NYSE: CPPL), and other natural gas pipeline, storage and midstream holdings. In January 2019, the company announced that it would accelerate retirement of its