Natural Gas Act of 1938

Natural Gas Act of 1938

Long title	An Act to regulate the transportation and sale of natural gas in interstate commerce, and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)	NGA
Enacted by	the 75th United States Congress
Effective	June 21, 1938
Citations
Public law	Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 75–688
Statutes at Large	52 Stat. 821
Codification
Titles amended	15 U.S.C.: Commerce and Trade
U.S.C. sections created	15 U.S.C. ch. 15B § 717 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 6586 by Clarence F. Lea (D-CA) on June 16, 1937 Committee consideration by House Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Senate Interstate Commerce Passed the House on July 1, 1937 (Passed) Passed the Senate on June 7, 1938 (Passed) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on June 13, 1938 (Agreed) with further amendment Senate agreed to House amendment on June 14, 1938 (Agreed) Signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 21, 1938
United States Supreme Court cases
FPC v. Natural Gas Pipeline Co., 315 U.S. 575 (1942) United Gas Co. v. Mobile Gas Corp., 350 U.S. 332 (1956) Pan American Petroleum Corp. v. Superior Court of Del. for New Castle Cty., 366 U.S. 656 (1961) Northern Gas Co. v. Kansas Comm'n., 372 U.S. 84 (1963) Oneok, Inc. v. Learjet, Inc., No. 13-271, 575 U.S. ___ (2015) PennEast Pipeline Co. v. New Jersey, No. 19-1039, 594 U.S. ___ (2021)

The Natural Gas Act of 1938 was the first occurrence of the United States federal government regulating the natural gas industry. It was focused on regulating the rates charged by interstate natural gas transmission companies. In the years prior to the passage of the Act, concern arose about the monopolistic tendencies of the transmission companies and the fact that they were charging higher than competitive prices. The passage of the Act gave the Federal Power Commission (FPC) control over the regulation of interstate natural gas sales. Later on, the FPC was dissolved and became the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) pursuant to a different act. FERC continues to regulate the natural gas industry to this day.