Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Wisconsin

Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Wisconsin
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued April 6–7, 1954 Decided June 7, 1954
Full case name	Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Wisconsin
Citations	347 U.S. 672 (more) 74 S.Ct. 794; 98 L. Ed. 2d 1035; 1954 U.S. LEXIS 2620
Case history
Prior	205 F.2d 706 (D.C. Cir. 1953); cert. granted, 346 U.S. 934 (1954).
Subsequent	Rehearing denied, 348 U.S. 851 (1954).
Holding
Wellhead sales of natural gas are subject to federal regulation
Court membership
Chief Justice Earl Warren Associate Justices Hugo Black · Stanley F. Reed Felix Frankfurter · William O. Douglas Robert H. Jackson · Harold H. Burton Tom C. Clark · Sherman Minton
Case opinions
Majority	Minton, joined by Warren, Black, Reed, Jackson
Concurrence	Frankfurter
Dissent	Douglas
Dissent	Clark, joined by Burton
Laws applied
Natural Gas Act; 15 U.S.C. § 717

Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Wisconsin, 347 U.S. 672 (1954), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States holding that sale of natural gas at the wellhead was subject to regulation under the Natural Gas Act.^[1] Prior to this case, independent producers sold natural gas to interstate pipelines at unregulated prices with any subsequent sales for resale being regulated. The State of Wisconsin sought to close this regulatory loophole in order to keep consumer prices low. Natural gas producers argued that wellhead sales were exempt from federal regulation as "production and gathering." Below, the Federal Power Commission compiled an evidentiary record 10,000 pages long before deciding not to regulate wellhead sales. However, the courts reversed, and the case resulted in federal price controls on wellhead gas prices for the next 40 years.