Natural Gas Regulation

New Effort to Bar Control of Producer Prices

Hearings before the house interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, now drawing to a close, have set the stage for early House action on amending the Natural Gas Act of 1938 to place a statutory ban on federal regulation of prices charged for the fuel at the wellhead. Several bills introduced for that purpose aim thus to void the effects of the Supreme Court's decision last year in the Phillips Petroleum case.

The Court's decision affirmed the right of the Federal Power Commission, proceeding under the 1938 act, to fix the prices that producers charge interstate pipeline companies for the gas they transport to local distributors. Rep. Or en Harris (D-Ark.), sponsor of the principal ...