Comment:
Robert D. Daniel, Independent Natural Gas Producers, the FPC and the Courts: A Case of Judicial Intermeddling, 53 Texas L. Rev. 784 (1975).
 

Abstract:
In the face of an ever-widening shortage of gas and scholarly criticism, the Federal Power Commission has attempted to alter substantially the structure of its field price regulation. The Commission has accomplished this metamorphosis in an environment not wholly conducive to rational decisionmaking. On the one hand, the President has called for deregulation of the independent natural gas producer while elements in Congress have suggested tightening control over gas rates. On the other hand, the Supreme Court has become increasingly skeptical of commission action despite protestations to the contrary.

This comment tracks two paths. First, it examines the current activity of the FPC, assessing the economic impact of the Commission’s new regulatory pattern. Second, it scrutinizes the recent development of judicial activism as an obstacle to rationalizing natural gas regulation.