Opinion ID: 105922
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: The Court of Appeals thought that the Commission had no jurisdiction to consider petitioners' proposal because it was limited to a firm price agreed upon by the parties applicant. Their refusal to accept certification at a lower price, even to the extent of canceling their contracts and withholding the gas from interstate commerce, the court held, resulted in the Commission's losing jurisdiction. We do not believe that this follows. No sales, intrastate or interstate, of gas had ever been made from the leases involved here. The contracts under which the petitioners proposed to sell the gas in the interstate market were all conditioned on the issuance of certificates of public convenience and necessity. A failure by either party to secure such certificates rendered the contracts subject to termination. Certainly the filing of the application for a certificate did not constitute a dedication to the interstate market of the gas recoverable under these leases. Nor is there doubt that the producers were at liberty to refuse conditional certificates proposed by the Commission's second order. While the refusal might have been couched in more diplomatic language, it had no effect on the Commission's power to act on the rehearing requested. Even though the Commission did march up the hill only to march down again upon reaching the summit we cannot say that this about-face deprived it of jurisdiction. We find nothing illegal in the petitioners' rejection of the alternative price proposed by the Commission and their standing firm on their own.