Pierce Butler

“ Under the guise of regulation, the state may not require the company to make large expenditures for the extension of its mains and service into new territory, when the necessary result will be to compel the company to use its property for the public convenience without just compensation. ”

“ There is nothing to show that just compensation for the service ordered may not be had, or that compliance with the order will necessarily so reduce the company's income from its operations as a whole as to be in effect a confiscation of its property, or that, at rates not unreasonable or prohibitive, consumption of gas in the communities directed to be served will not be sufficient to yield a just return on the necessary additions. ”

“ In the territory already served by the company there are 150 consumers per mile of main. The sections for which service is ordered are residential communities. They have had water and electric service for many years. The houses already there, and those being built, are of a kind to indicate that, if brought within reach, gas will be used by the larger part of the inhabitants. There are good prospects of growth in the immediate future. The facts justify reasonable anticipation of a substantial and increasing demand for gas in the territory to be reached by the extensions. ”