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8 

ONEOK, INC. v. LEARJET, INC. 

Opinion of the Court 

energy price index,” and “for reporting transaction data to
index  developers.”  Price  Discovery  in  Natural  Gas  and 
Elec.  Markets,  104  FERC  ¶61,121,  pp.  61,407,  61,408 
(2003).  Finally, FERC, after finding that certain jurisdic­
tional  sellers  had  “engaged  in  wash  trading  . . .  that  re­
sulted in the manipulation of [natural-gas] prices,” termi­
nated those sellers’ blanket marketing certificates.  Enron 
Power  Marketing,  Inc.,  103  FERC  ¶61,343,  p.  62,303
(2003).

Congress also took steps to address these problems.  In 
particular,  it  passed  the  Energy  Policy  Act  of  2005,  119 
Stat.  594,  which  gives  FERC  the  authority  to  issue  rules 
and regulations to prevent “any manipulative or deceptive
device  or  contrivance”  by  “any  entity  . . .  in  connection 
with the purchase or sale of natural gas or the purchase or
sale  of  transportation  services  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
of ” FERC, 15 U. S. C. §717c–1. 

C 
We now turn to the cases before us.  Respondents, as we
have  said,  bought  large  quantities  of  natural  gas  directly 
from interstate pipelines for their own consumption.  They
believe that they overpaid in these transactions due to the
interstate  pipelines’  manipulation  of  the  natural-gas 
indices.  Based on this belief, they filed state-law antitrust
suits  against  petitioners  in  state  and  federal  courts.    See 
App.  244–246  (alleging  violations  of  Wis.  Stat.  §§133.03,
133.14, 133.18); see also App. 430–433 (same); id., at 519– 
521  (same);  id.,  at  362–364  (alleging  violations  of  Kansas 
Restraint  of  Trade  Act,  Kan.  Stat.  Ann.  §50–101  et  seq.);
App.  417–419  (alleging  violations  of  Missouri  Antitrust 
Law,  Mo.  Rev.  Stat.  §§416.011–416.161).    The  pipelines
removed  all  the  state  cases  to  federal  court,  where  they
were consolidated and sent for pretrial proceedings to the
Federal District  Court  for the  District of Nevada.  See 28 
U. S. C. §1407.