National Fuel and The Business Council obtain preliminary injunction prohibiting burdensome state law from going into effect

Client(s) National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation and The Business Council of New York State, Inc.

Jones Day represents both National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation and The Business Council of New York State, Inc. in a U.S. constitutional challenge to a New York State law that would have prohibited utilities from contracting with or operating out-of-state call centers without going through a burdensome regulatory approval process.

Jones Day, on behalf of its clients, successfully obtained a preliminary injunction in New York federal court prohibiting the state law from going into effect. The federal court agreed with our clients' argument that the law violates a legal doctrine under the U.S. Constitution known as the dormant Commerce Clause, which prohibits states from regulating interstate commerce, and threatened irreparable harm to utilities' business operations. The statute, if left unchallenged, would have severely disrupted customer-assistance operations for utilities across the State of New York, potentially slowing utilities' responses to emergencies and jeopardizing customer safety; would have subjected the utilities to six-figure USD fines; and would have forced utilities to incur substantial, unnecessary expenses to change their customer-assistance models.

National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp. v. Christian, No. 25-cv-00525 (N.D.N.Y)