Court Opinion

ID: 9531204
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:08:39.601574+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:22.041797
License: Public Domain

Price, J.
(dissenting): I am unable to agree to the result reached in the opinion written for the court and will state my views very briefly.
In doing so I do not propose to debate the merits of the question whether the commission should or should not have power to fix the price of natural gas at the wellhead in the Hugoton or any other gas field. As I see it the question is — does it possess such power under the statute? The commission has only such powers as have been conferred upon it’ by the legislature. Nowhere in *735the provisions of G. S. 1947 Supp. 55-701, 702, 703 and 704 do I find any such authority granted. In fact, at the 1947 session of the legislature H. B. 129 specifically empowered the commission “. . . to fix a minimum price at which gas may be purchased at the wellhead. . . It is true that this bill, which passed both houses of the legislature, was vetoed by the governor and therefore did not become a part of our law — but, in my opinion, it was definitely a legislative .recognition of the fact that no such power previously existed. In the absence of such statutory authority I am unwilling to say that an administrative agency, board or commission possesses the power to do what was done here and for that reason I think the order of the commission was unlawful and should be set aside.
Wedell, J., concurring in J. Price’s dissent.