Hugo Black

“ Jurisdiction to regulate a natural-gas company without jurisdiction to regulate its gas reserves would be like granting jurisdiction to regulate railroads without power to regulate the tracks, routes, rights-of-way, etc. And we have held that the Commission has jurisdiction under the Natural Gas Act to consider the gas producing properties in fixing rates. ”

“ It was the physical acts incident to the 'production and gathering' of gas-local activities-that our prior decisions emphasized Congress intended to leave states free to regulate. Today the Court reads this congressionally granted privilege of states to regulate the act of 'production' as an absolute bar to the Federal Power Commission's regulation of the ownership of gas-reserve properties. Gas reserves are indispensable to proper service of interstate customers of an interstate natural-gas company. ”