Joseph McKenna

“ It may be, as it is deposed, that 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas converted into gasoline and carbon black may be sold much higher than can be obtained from the same amount of gas sold for fuel purposes, but it does not follow from that fact that the state may not consider, and direct its legislation by the consideration that (and we take the averment of the companies) 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas is consumed to produce 1 3/4 pounds of carbon black and about two-tenths of a gallon of gasoline. ”

“ There is a prohibition upon the owner or lessee of wells within the designated distance from a town or industrial plant to sell or dispose of the gas, except under the specified conditions, 'for the purpose of manufacturing carbon or other resultant products.'
There are two elements, therefore, to be considered: (1) The distance of the wells from an incorporated town or industrial plant; (2) the element of heat utilization for manufacturing or domestic purposes. These elements are the determining ones in the accusations against the law. ”

“ Other affidavits express the detriment, in the opinion of the affiants, of any restriction or regulation of the production of it; and others, from asserted experts, exhibit the source of the gas and the process of manufacture from it of carbon black, and that in its manufacture heat is necessarily evolved, but that as soon as any attempt is made to transform the heat into any other form of energy, such as light or mechanical power, an enormous, but inevitable, loss of heat results. ”

“ A comparison is made with other fuels, and the affidavits are explicit in statement that the requirement that the heat contained in them must be 'fully and actually applied and utilized' (to use the words of the Wyoming statute) is not only unreasonable, but impossible. Figures are given, not only of gas engines, but of oil, air, and steam engines. This is dwelt on at great length, and it is declared that it is absolutely impossible to utilize heat generated as an incident to the manufacture of carbon black ”

“ The affidavits (which we have presented necessarily in barest outline) , whether they may be regarded as presenting issues of fact or of judgment, exhibit the conditions which may have moved the policy and legislation of the state. Manifestly, conceding a power to the state of regulation, a comparison of the value of the industries and a judgment upon them as affecting the state, was for it to make. ”

“ Opposing affidavits set forth the needs of the towns, present and prospective, and of industries other than carbon black, and that the wells of the companies are drilled into the same sand in which the wells of the Lovell Gas & Electric Company, an industry which furnishes gas and electricity to the town of Lovell, are drilled. The sand is a free, flowing sand ”

“ The uses of carbon black are enumerated, and it is alleged that no form of it possessing the same properties and the wide variety of uses can be commercially manufactured from any material or substance other than natural gas. ”

“ And it is affirmed that the plant of the Midland Gas Company consists of about 90 separate buildings constructed of sheet iron and steel, in such a way that they can be moved more readily than almost any other character of construction, and were evidently designed with the idea of portability in mind, and at the present rate of consumption of the gas they will have to be moved, in any event, within a year. ”

“ The first is the basis of the discrimination charged against it; the second is the basis of the charge that the law deprives the companies of their property by the ruin of their business and capital investments, and impairs the obligations of pre-existing contracts. ”

“ Those on the part of defendants represent the interest of the city of Lovell and other towns, and the necessity to their industries, if there are to be any, of a natural gas from the wells with which this case is concerned, and represent a depletion of the gas supply by the use made of the gas by complainants. ”

“ It is equipped for the manufacture of such carbon black, and can be used for no other purpose, and there is produced from it approximately 13,000 pounds of that article daily, which is sufficient for the manufacture of 117,000 pounds of printing ink. From the gas consumed to make the carbon black, there is first extracted approximately 1,600 gallons per day of high-gravity gasoline. ”