Shell Oil Company v. Federal Power Commission, and Consolidated Cases. In Re National Rate Cases for New Gas

RONEY, Circuit Judge:

On this review of consolidated cases entitled National Rate Cases For New Gas, we sustain the Federal Power Commission’s establishment of a national rate for jurisdictional wellhead sales of natural gas. 1 In so doing, for the first time in this Circuit, we give judicial imprimatur to the promulgation of a rate order through rulemaking procedures in contrast to formal adjudicatory procedures; we sustain a national rate for wellhead sales of natural gas in contrast to the individual producer rates and the area rates that have heretofore been approved; and we hold that the…