McCombs v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

I respectfully dissent. While the equities favor the McCombs Group, duPont and National, usual contract rules and equitable considerations do not control in this proceeding under the Natural Gas Act, in my opinion. Instead, there are mandatory statutory requirements on abandonment of service which were imposed to protect the public interests recognized by the Act, Sunray Oil Co. v. FPC, 364 U.S. 137, 143, 80 S.Ct. 1392, 4 L.Ed.2d 1623, and these provisions convince me that we should affirm the basic holding of the Commission in this case.1

The majority opinion reasons (p. 1380) that: there was…