290
Opinion of the Court
ketable commodity, the States had learned from chastening experience that public streets could not be continually torn up to lay competitors' pipes, that investments in parallel delivery systems for different fractions of a local market would limit the value to consumers of any price competition, and that competition would simply give over to monopoly in due course. It seemed virtually an economic necessity for States to provide a single, local franchise with a business opportunity free of competition from any source, within or without the State, so long as the creation of exclusive franchises under state law could be balanced by regulation and the imposition of obligations to the consuming public upon the franchised retailers.
Almost as soon as the States began regulating natural gas retail monopolies, their power to do so was challenged by interstate vendors as inconsistent with the dormant Commerce Clause. While recognizing the interstate character of commerce in natural gas, the Court nonetheless affirmed the States' power to regulate, as a matter of local concern, all direct sales of gas to consumers within their borders, absent congressional prohibition of such state regulation. See, e. g., Pennsylvania Gas Co. v. Public Serv. Comm'n of N. Y., 252 U. S. 23, 28-31 (1920); Public Util. Comm'n of Kan. v. Landon, 249 U. S. 236, 245-246 (1919). At the same time, the Court concluded that the dormant Commerce Clause prevents the States from regulating interstate transportation or sales for resale of natural gas. See, e. g., Missouri ex rel. Barrett v. Kansas Natural Gas Co., 265 U. S. 298, 307-310 (1924); Pennsylvania v. West Virginia, 262 U. S. 553, 596- 600, reaffirmed on rehearing, 263 U. S. 350 (1923). See generally Illinois Natural Gas Co. v. Central Ill. Public Service Co., 314 U. S. 498, 504-505 (1942) (summarizing prior cases distinguishing between permissible and impermissible state regulation of commerce in natural gas). Thus, the Court never questioned the power of the States to regulate retail
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