Title 15, Commerce and TradeRelease 119-110
§717f Construction, Extension, or Abandonment of Facilities
Title 15 › CHAPTER 15B — NATURAL GAS › § 717f
Summary
The Commission can order a natural-gas company to build, extend, or improve pipelines or to connect and sell gas to local distributors after giving notice and a hearing, if it finds that action is in the public interest and will not place an unfair burden on the company. The Commission may not force a company to enlarge facilities or make connections if doing so would stop the company from giving adequate service to its customers. A company may not abandon any regulated facilities or services without the Commission’s permission after a hearing and a finding that gas supply is so depleted that service is unwarranted, or that public convenience allows abandonment. A company must have a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Commission before it transports, sells, builds, or buys regulated facilities, unless it already operated over the same route or area on February 7, 1942 and applied for a certificate within 90 days after that date. The Commission will hold hearings on other applications, can grant temporary certificates in emergencies without notice, and may exempt some temporary acts. Applications must be written and sworn. Certificates will be issued if the applicant can do the work, follow the rules, and if the service is needed now or in the future. The Commission can set service areas, and holders can expand inside their areas without new approval; if an area is set, state regulators have exclusive jurisdiction over delivering gas to consumers there even across state lines. A certificate holder who cannot buy needed land by agreement may use eminent domain in federal or state court; federal courts hear cases only when the owner’s claimed value exceeds $3,000.
Full Legal Text
Title 15, §717f
Commerce and Trade, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
(a)Extension or improvement of facilities on order of court; notice and hearing
Whenever the Commission, after notice and opportunity for hearing, finds such action necessary or desirable in the public interest, it may by order direct a natural-gas company to extend or improve its transportation facilities, to establish physical connection of its transportation facilities with the facilities of, and sell natural gas to, any person or municipality engaged or legally authorized to engage in the local distribution of natural or artificial gas to the public, and for such purpose to extend its transportation facilities to communities immediately adjacent to such facilities or to territory served by such natural-gas company, if the Commission finds that no undue burden will be placed upon such natural-gas company thereby: Provided, That the Commission shall have no authority to compel the enlargement of transportation facilities for such purposes, or to compel such natural-gas company to establish physical connection or sell natural gas when to do so would impair its ability to render adequate service to its customers.
(b)Abandonment of facilities or services; approval of Commission
No natural-gas company shall abandon all or any portion of its facilities subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission, or any service rendered by means of such facilities, without the permission and approval of the Commission first had and obtained, after due hearing, and a finding by the Commission that the available supply of natural gas is depleted to the extent that the continuance of service is unwarranted, or that the present or future public convenience or necessity permit such abandonment.
(c)Certificate of public convenience and necessity
(1)(A)No natural-gas company or person which will be a natural-gas company upon completion of any proposed construction or extension shall engage in the transportation or sale of natural gas, subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission, or undertake the construction or extension of any facilities therefor, or acquire or operate any such facilities or extensions thereof, unless there is in force with respect to such natural-gas company a certificate of public convenience and necessity issued by the Commission authorizing such acts or operations: Provided, however, That if any such natural-gas company or predecessor in interest was bona fide engaged in transportation or sale of natural gas, subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission, on February 7, 1942, over the route or routes or within the area for which application is made and has so operated since that time, the Commission shall issue such certificate without requiring further proof that public convenience and necessity will be served by such operation, and without further proceedings, if application for such certificate is made to the Commission within ninety days after February 7, 1942. Pending the determination of any such application, the continuance of such operation shall be lawful.
(B)In all other cases the Commission shall set the matter for hearing and shall give such reasonable notice of the hearing thereon to all interested persons as in its judgment may be necessary under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Commission; and the application shall be decided in accordance with the procedure provided in subsection (e) of this section and such certificate shall be issued or denied accordingly: Provided, however, That the Commission may issue a temporary certificate in cases of emergency, to assure maintenance of adequate service or to serve particular customers, without notice or hearing, pending the determination of an application for a certificate, and may by regulation exempt from the requirements of this section temporary acts or operations for which the issuance of a certificate will not be required in the public interest.
(2)The Commission may issue a certificate of public convenience and necessity to a natural-gas company for the transportation in interstate commerce of natural gas used by any person for one or more high-priority uses, as defined, by rule, by the Commission, in the case of—
(A)natural gas sold by the producer to such person; and
(B)natural gas produced by such person.
(d)Application for certificate of public convenience and necessity
Application for certificates shall be made in writing to the Commission, be verified under oath, and shall be in such form, contain such information, and notice thereof shall be served upon such interested parties and in such manner as the Commission shall, by regulation, require.
(e)Granting of certificate of public convenience and necessity
Except in the cases governed by the provisos contained in subsection (c)(1) of this section, a certificate shall be issued to any qualified applicant therefor, authorizing the whole or any part of the operation, sale, service, construction, extension, or acquisition covered by the application, if it is found that the applicant is able and willing properly to do the acts and to perform the service proposed and to conform to the provisions of this chapter and the requirements, rules, and regulations of the Commission thereunder, and that the proposed service, sale, operation, construction, extension, or acquisition, to the extent authorized by the certificate, is or will be required by the present or future public convenience and necessity; otherwise such application shall be denied. The Commission shall have the power to attach to the issuance of the certificate and to the exercise of the rights granted thereunder such reasonable terms and conditions as the public convenience and necessity may require.
(f)Determination of service area; jurisdiction of transportation to ultimate consumers
(1)The Commission, after a hearing had upon its own motion or upon application, may determine the service area to which each authorization under this section is to be limited. Within such service area as determined by the Commission a natural-gas company may enlarge or extend its facilities for the purpose of supplying increased market demands in such service area without further authorization; and
(2)If the Commission has determined a service area pursuant to this subsection, transportation to ultimate consumers in such service area by the holder of such service area determination, even if across State lines, shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the State commission in the State in which the gas is consumed. This section shall not apply to the transportation of natural gas to another natural gas company.
(g)Certificate of public convenience and necessity for service of area already being served
Nothing contained in this section shall be construed as a limitation upon the power of the Commission to grant certificates of public convenience and necessity for service of an area already being served by another natural-gas company.
(h)Right of eminent domain for construction of pipelines, etc.
When any holder of a certificate of public convenience and necessity cannot acquire by contract, or is unable to agree with the owner of property to the compensation to be paid for, the necessary right-of-way to construct, operate, and maintain a pipe line or pipe lines for the transportation of natural gas, and the necessary land or other property, in addition to right-of-way, for the location of compressor stations, pressure apparatus, or other stations or equipment necessary to the proper operation of such pipe line or pipe lines, it may acquire the same by the exercise of the right of eminent domain in the district court of the United States for the district in which such property may be located, or in the State courts. The practice and procedure in any action or proceeding for that purpose in the district court of the United States shall conform as nearly as may be with the practice and procedure in similar action or proceeding in the courts of the State where the property is situated: Provided, That the United States district courts shall only have jurisdiction of cases when the amount claimed by the owner of the property to be condemned exceeds $3,000.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Amendments
1988—Subsec. (f). Pub. L. 100–474 designated existing provisions as par. (1) and added par. (2). 1978—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 95–617, § 608(a), (b)(1), designated existing first paragraph as par. (1)(A) and existing second paragraph as par. (1)(B) and added par. (2). Subsec. (e). Pub. L. 95–617, § 608(b)(2), substituted “subsection (c)(1)” for “subsection (c)”. 1947—Subsec. (h). Act July 25, 1947, added subsec. (h). 1942—Subsecs. (c) to (g). Act Feb. 7, 1942, struck out subsec. (c), and added new subsecs. (c) to (g).
Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries
Effective Date
of 1988 Amendment Pub. L. 100–474, § 3, Oct. 6, 1988, 102 Stat. 2302, provided that: “The provisions of this Act [amending this section and enacting provisions set out as a note under section 717w of this title] shall become effective one hundred and twenty days after the date of enactment [Oct. 6, 1988].”
Executive Documents
Enforcement
functions of Secretary or other official in Department of Energy and Commission, Commissioners, or other official in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission related to compliance with certificates of public convenience and necessity issued under this section with respect to pre-
Construction
,
Construction
, and initial operation of transportation system for Canadian and Alaskan natural gas transferred to Federal Inspector, Office of Federal Inspector for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System, until first anniversary of date of initial operation of Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System, see Reorg. Plan No. 1 of 1979, §§ 102(d), 203(a), 44 F.R. 33663, 33666, 93 Stat. 1373, 1376, effective July 1, 1979, set out under section 719e of this title. Office of Federal Inspector for the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System abolished and functions and authority vested in Inspector transferred to Secretary of Energy by section 3012(b) of Pub. L. 102–486, set out as an Abolition of Office of Federal Inspector note under section 719e of this title. Functions and authority vested in Secretary of Energy subsequently transferred to Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects by section 720d(f) of this title.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
15 U.S.C. § 717f
Title 15, Commerce and Trade
Last Updated
Sep 22, 2026
Release point: 119-110