Railroad Commission Texas Et Al v. City Austin Et Al

This case concerns the powers of the Texas Railroad Commission to regulate gas utilities and how it may exercise its powers. The primary source of its jurisdiction for such purposes comes from a statute enacted in 1920 which is known as the Cox Act. In order to ascertain legislative intent, and to put the provisions of the statute in context, the Cox Act will be discussed herein, along with the construction it has heretofore received by this Court. It will be noted at the outset that there was, and is, no statutory provision which prohibited the sale of gas reserves, or rights in gas reserves; and there is no self-enacting provision requiring the prior approval by the Commission of the sale or assignment of gas reserves or rights therein. And at the time of the transactions here in question, the Railroad Commission had promulgated no rule requiring its prior approval of the sale of gas reserves by a gas utility.