Richfield Oil Corp. v. Public Utilities Commission

— In this proceeding Richfield Oil Corporation attacks an order of the Public Utilities Commission directing it to cease and desist from constructing a pipeline to connect with its Mandalay pipeline, the operation of which we considered in Richfield Oil Corp. v. Public Util. Com., 54 Cal.2d 419 [ 6 Cal.Rptr. 548 , 354 P.2d 4 ], cert, den., Southern Counties Gas Co. v. Public Utilities Corn., 364 U.S. 900 [ 81 S.Ct. 233 , 5 L.Ed.2d 193 ].

In the first Richfield ease we annulled orders of the commission that determined that Richfield was a public utility gas corporation and directed it to cease and desist from delivering gas to Edison’s Mandalay steam-electric generating plant through a 20-inch pipeline from Richfield’s Cuyama Valley and San Joaquin Valley oil and gas fields. We held that the commission had attempted to regulate and prohibit Rich-field’s nonpublic utility activities and that Richfield’s service to Edison was such a nonpublic utility activity.

While that case was pending in this court, Richfield started construction of the pipeline involved in this ease. It is a 6-inch pipeline 8 miles long from Richfield’s Rincon Island field to its Mandalay line, and Richfield…