Trunkline Gas Company v. Federal Power Commission

JOHN R. BROWN, Circuit Judge.

The question here is whether tlie Federal Power Commission, having ordered a full hearing into a phase of a Natural Gas Company’s rate, can ignore the Examiner’s findings favorable to the Company and adverse to the Staff’s contention by retrospectively limiting the issues. We hold that any such action is an abuse of the administrative process and that the Commission may not do it.

Because Trunkline Gas Company (Trunkline) is owned by its largest customer, Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company (Panhandle), to whom it sells 98% of its gas, the tariff rate filed and…