Opinion ID: 373874
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Emasculation of the Role of Section 5

Text: 43 First, the more expansive reading would effectively emasculate the role of section 5 in the ratemaking scheme. Any time the Commission had good reason to believe that a pipeline's rates were unjust or unreasonable, it could simply condition the granting of new certificates on the adjustment of those rates, the condition to terminate only when the pipeline filed a new rate proceeding under section 4. There would be no need for the Commission to use section 5 so long as pipelines continued requesting new certificates instead, the Commission could simply condition certificates on rate reductions and shift the burden to the pipelines to show affirmatively that its previous rates continued to be just and reasonable. Section 5 would be reduced to a stopgap device, necessary for reducing unjust or unreasonable rates only when no new certificate filings were being made. We do not think that section 7 was meant to reduce so sharply the role of section 5, and therefore decline to adopt FERC's expansive interpretation of the conditioning power. 44 44