ABSTRACT
Gas regulation-in particular, the control of prices in the field-is under heavy attack. This in itself is hardly new. The regulation of producers has been a matter of bitter controversy since 1954 when the Supreme Court, at the behest of a “consumer” state (Wisconsin), ruled that the sales made by a major producer (Phillips Petroleum Company)1 to interstate pipelines were subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Power Commission (FPC).2 For some years thereafter, the industry’s opposition took the form of a concerted effort to reverse the decision by legislation-an effort that barely failed, and then only because the measures approved by Congress were twice vetoed.3 The claim that control of pro ducers’ prices was bound to prove unworkable gained added credence when, in 1960, the commission concluded that it had best abandon its six-year endeavor to comply with the Phillips remand by use of traditional public utility rate-making techniques and consider resort to a radically different approach.4
