Opinion ID: 492011
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Selective as Opposed to Uniform Discounts.

Text: 157 Some parties accept the concept of price discounting but argue that the Commission should allow only uniform discounting (in effect requiring a pipeline to promulgate in advance the criteria under which it would provide discounts). The Commission, however, made the judgment that such a rule would unduly stifle discounting. J.A. 478-83. It saw substantial gains from such discounts: cheaper fuel supplies for the price-elastic customers receiving the discounts; reduced revenue short-falls for pipelines that would otherwise lose the business altogether; and protection for non-favored customers from rate increases that would ultimately occur if pipelines lost volume through inability to respond to competition. J.A. 483. 158 For much the same reasons that courts allow administrative agencies the leeway to choose between rulemaking and adjudication (variability of circumstances, difficulties of foresight), we think that the Commission was within its power to allow pipelines a parallel choice. But, just as courts insist on a degree of agency consistency, see, e.g., Local 32, American Federation of Gov't Employees v. FLRA, 774 F.2d 498, 502 (D.C.Cir.1985), we expect that the Commission will exact from the pipelines as much consistency of application as is necessary for both to be in conformity with Secs. 4 and 5. 159