15 U.S.C. § 717 — Regulation of natural gas companies

(a) Necessity of regulation in public interest. Reports of the Federal Trade Commission made under S. Res. 83 (Seventieth Congress, first session), and other reports made under congressional authority, disclose that transporting and selling natural gas for ultimate distribution to the public is affected with a public interest. They also disclose that Federal regulation of transporting natural gas and selling it in interstate and foreign commerce is necessary in the public interest. (b) Transactions to which provisions of chapter apply. This chapter applies to— • transporting natural gas in interstate commerce; • selling natural gas in interstate commerce for resale for ultimate public consumption, including domestic, commercial, industrial, and any other use; • natural-gas companies engaged in that transportation or sale; and • importing or exporting natural gas in foreign commerce, and persons engaged in that importing or exporting. The chapter does not apply to any other transportation or sale of natural gas, local distribution of natural gas, facilities used for local distribution, or the production or gathering of natural gas. (c) Intrastate transactions exempt from provisions of chapter; certification from State commission as conclusive evidence. This chapter does not apply to a person who transports natural gas in interstate commerce, or sells it in interstate commerce for resale, when the person receives all of that gas from another person within or at the boundary of a State and all of it is ultimately consumed within that State. The exemption also covers facilities the person uses for that transportation or sale, but only if a State commission regulates the person’s and the facilities’ rates and service. The matters exempted by this subsection are declared to be primarily matters of local concern and subject to regulation by the States. A certification from the State commission to the Federal Power Commission stating that the State commission has regulatory jurisdiction over the person’s and facilities’ rates and service, and is exercising that jurisdiction, is conclusive evidence of that regulatory power or jurisdiction. (d) Vehicular natural gas jurisdiction. This chapter does not apply to a person solely because of, or with respect to, selling or transporting vehicular natural gas if the person is— (1) not otherwise a natural-gas company; or (2) primarily subject to regulation by a State commission, whether or not that State commission has jurisdiction over, or is exercising jurisdiction over, the sale, sale for resale, or transportation of vehicular natural gas.