§ 717c. — Rates and charges.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 15USC717c]
TITLE 15--COMMERCE AND TRADE
CHAPTER 15B--NATURAL GAS
Sec. 717c. Rates and charges
(a) Just and reasonable rates and charges
All rates and charges made, demanded, or received by any natural-gas
company for or in connection with the transportation or sale of natural
gas subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission, and all rules and
regulations affecting or pertaining to such rates or charges, shall be
just and reasonable, and any such rate or charge that is not just and
reasonable is declared to be unlawful.
(b) Undue preferences and unreasonable rates and charges prohibited
No natural-gas company shall, with respect to any transportation or
sale of natural gas subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission, (1)
make or grant any undue preference or advantage to any person or subject
any person to any undue prejudice or disadvantage, or (2) maintain any
unreasonable difference in rates, charges, service, facilities, or in
any other respect, either as between localities or as between classes of
service.
(c) Filing of rates and charges with Commission; public inspection of
schedules
Under such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe,
every natural-gas company shall file with the Commission, within such
time (not less than sixty days from June 21, 1938) and in such form as
the Commission may designate, and shall keep open in convenient form and
place for public inspection, schedules showing all rates and charges for
any transportation or sale subject to the jurisdiction of the
Commission, and the classifications, practices, and regulations
affecting such rates and charges, together with all contracts which in
any manner affect or relate to such rates, charges, classifications, and
services.
(d) Changes in rates and charges; notice to Commission
Unless the Commission otherwise orders, no change shall be made by
any natural-gas company in any such rate, charge, classification, or
service, or in any rule, regulation, or contract relating thereto,
except after thirty days' notice to the Commission and to the public.
Such notice shall be given by filing with the Commission and keeping
open for public inspection new schedules stating plainly the change or
changes to be made in the schedule or schedules then in force and the
time when the change or changes will go into effect. The Commission, for
good cause shown, may allow changes to take effect without requiring the
thirty days' notice herein provided for by an order specifying the
changes so to be made and the time when they shall take effect and the
manner in which they shall be filed and published.
(e) Authority of Commission to hold hearings concerning new schedule of
rates
Whenever any such new schedule is filed the Commission shall have
authority, either upon complaint of any State, municipality, State
commission, or gas distributing company, or upon its own initiative
without complaint, at once, and if it so orders, without answer or
formal pleading by the natural-gas company, but upon reasonable notice,
to enter upon a hearing concerning the lawfulness of such rate, charge,
classification, or service; and, pending such hearing and the decision
thereon, the Commission, upon filing with such schedules and delivering
to the natural-gas company affected thereby a statement in writing of
its reasons for such suspension, may suspend the operation of such
schedule and defer the use of such rate, charge, classification, or
service, but not for a longer period than five months beyond the time
when it would otherwise go into effect; and after full hearings, either
completed before or after the rate, charge, classification, or service
goes into effect, the Commission may make such orders with reference
thereto as would be proper in a proceeding initiated after it had become
effective. If the proceeding has not been concluded and an order made at
the expiration of the suspension period, on motion of the natural-gas
company making the filing, the proposed change of rate, charge,
classification, or service shall go into effect. Where increased rates
or charges are thus made effective, the Commission may, by order,
require the natural-gas company to furnish a bond, to be approved by the
Commission, to refund any amounts ordered by the Commission, to keep
accurate accounts in detail of all amounts received by reason of such
increase, specifying by whom and in whose behalf such amounts were paid,
and, upon completion of the hearing and decision, to order such natural-
gas company to refund, with interest, the portion of such increased
rates or charges by its decision found not justified. At any hearing
involving a rate or charge sought to be increased, the burden of proof
to show that the increased rate or charge is just and reasonable shall
be upon the natural-gas company, and the Commission shall give to the
hearing and decision of such questions preference over other questions
pending before it and decide the same as speedily as possible.
(June 21, 1938, ch. 556, Sec. 4, 52 Stat. 822; Pub. L. 87-454, May 21,
1962, 76 Stat. 72.)
Amendments
1962--Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 87-454 inserted ``or gas distributing
company'' after ``State commission'', and struck out proviso which
denied authority to the Commission to suspend the rate, charge,
classification, or service for the sale of natural gas for resale for
industrial use only.
Transfer of Functions
Federal Power Commission terminated and functions with regard to
establishment, review, and enforcement of rates and charges for
transportation and sale of natural gas by a producer or gatherer or by a
natural gas pipeline or natural gas company and establishment, review,
and enforcement of curtailments under this chapter, other than
establishment and review of priorities for such curtailments,
transferred to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by sections
7172(a)(1)(C), (E) and 7293 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare.
For transfer of functions of Federal Power Commission, with certain
reservations, to Chairman of such Commission, see Reorg. Plan No. 9 of
1950, Secs. 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3175, 64 Stat. 1265, set
out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.
Advance Recovery of Expenses Incurred by Natural Gas Companies for
Natural Gas Research, Development, and Demonstration Projects
Pub. L. 102-104, title III, Aug. 17, 1991, 105 Stat. 531, authorized
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, pursuant to this section, to allow
recovery, in advance, of expenses by natural-gas companies for research,
development and demonstration activities by Gas Research Institute for
projects on use of natural gas in motor vehicles and on use of natural
gas to control emissions from combustion of other fuels, subject to
Commission finding that benefits, including environmental benefits, to
both existing and future ratepayers resulting from such activities
exceed all direct costs to both existing and future ratepayers, prior to
repeal by Pub. L. 102-486, title IV, Sec. 408(c), Oct. 24, 1992, 106
Stat. 2882.
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in sections 717y, 3431 of this title;
title 42 sections 7172, 8235e, 8441, 13234; title 50 section 167i.
