State Ex Rel. Utilities Commission v. North Carolina Gas Service

SMITH, Judge.

In 1995, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted N.C. Gen. Stat. § 62-36A, requiring that all areas of the state be assigned to a natural gas local distribution company (“LDC”) by 1 January 1997. The North Carolina Utilities Commission (“Commission”) entered an order providing that companies could file applications for areas they wished to serve on or before 1 January 1996. After that date, the Commission would assign any remaining unfranchised areas.

On 29 December 1995, North Carolina Gas Service, a division of NUI Corporation (“N.C. Gas”), and Piedmont Natural Gas Company,…