Whether Order 451 can be saved has yet to be determined, but the order certainly nee& saving, according to producers andothers: the order hadbeen in effectfora long time before the Fjfth Circuit overturned it, and a great deal of gas had been sold at the order's new, higher prices. The gas that had been sold to the pipelines had then been resold to theL.DCsandon w the residentialandend-userclcrto~rs, and the egg couldn't be unscrambled, and so on, and so forth, blah, blah, blah, blah.
To gain a little insight into exactly what the Supreme Court may have hud in mind when it granted certiorari and into the strength ofthe arguments to restore the order, I talked with Fifth Circuit court of appeals Judge John R . Brown, who wrote the dissenting opinion that is widely credited with gaining the attention of the Supreme Court. Abandonment Necessary, Legal NG: What did you see as wrong with the mqiority opinion? Judge Brown: The court's opinion, written by Judge Sam Johnson and joined in by Chief Judge Clark, took three or four basic positions. Number one, they were convinced that [the order] was asellout to the producers. The producers were the sole beneficiaries, and [the order] gave them unfair advantages.
. . . they were convinced that [the order] was a sellout to the producers.