Federal Power Commission v. Louisiana Power & Light Co.

In April 1971 the Federal Power Commission (FPC) promulgated its Order No. 431 requiring every jurisdictional pipeline to report to the FPC whether curtailment of its deliveries to customers would be necessary because of inadequate supply of natural gas. A pipeline anticipating the necessity for curtailment was required to file a revised tariff to control deliveries to all customers— industrial “direct sales” customers, purchasing gas for their own consumption, and “resale” customers, purchasing gas for distribution to ultimate consumers.

The principal question here is whether the proviso to §…