Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/14pdf/13-271_j4ek.pdf
Page Number: 6.0

Cite as:  575 U. S. ____ (2015) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

the  parties  have  argued  this  case  almost  exclusively  in
terms of field pre-emption, we consider only the field pre­
emption question. 

B 
1 

Federal regulation of the natural-gas industry began at 
a time when the industry was divided into three segments.
See  1  Regulation  of  the  Natural  Gas  Industry  §1.01  (W. 
Mogel ed. 2008) (hereinafter Mogel); General Motors Corp. 
v.  Tracy,  519  U. S.  278,  283  (1997).    First,  natural-gas
producers  sunk  wells  in  large  oil  and  gas  fields  (such  as
the  Permian  Basin  in  Texas  and  New  Mexico).    They
gathered the gas, brought it to transportation points, and
left  it  to  interstate  gas  pipelines  to  transport  the  gas  to 
distant markets.  Second, interstate pipelines shipped the 
gas  from  the  field  to  cities  and  towns  across  the  Nation. 
Third, local gas distributors bought the gas from the inter­
state  pipelines  and  resold  it  to  business  and  residential 
customers within their localities. 

Originally,  the  States  regulated  all  three  segments  of 
the  industry.  See  1  Mogel  §1.03.    But  in  the  early  20th 
century, this Court held that the Commerce Clause forbids 
the States to regulate the second part of the business—i.e., 
the  interstate  shipment  and  sale  of  gas  to  local  distribu­
tors  for  resale.    See,  e.g.,  Public  Util.  Comm’n  of  R. I.  v. 
Attleboro  Steam  &  Elec.  Co.,  273  U. S.  83,  89–90  (1927); 
Missouri  ex rel.  Barrett  v.  Kansas  Natural  Gas  Co.,  265 
U. S.  298,  307–308  (1924).  These  holdings  left  a  regula- 
tory gap.  Congress enacted the Natural Gas Act, 52 Stat.
821, to fill it.  See Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Wisconsin, 347 
U. S. 672, 682–684, n. 13 (1954) (citing H. R. Rep. No. 709,
75th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.,  1–2  (1937);  S. Rep.  No.  1162,  75th
Cong., 1st Sess., 1–2 (1937)). 

The  Act,  in  §5(a),  gives  rate-setting  authority  to  the
Federal  Energy  Regulatory  Commission  (FERC,  formerly