---
kind: "section"
citation: "15 U.S.C. § 717a"
title: "15"
title_heading: "Commerce and Trade"
number: "717a"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/15/717a"
units:
  - "Chapter 15B — Natural Gas"
---

# §717a. Definitions


When used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires—

- (1) “Person” includes an individual or a [corporation](#2).
- (2) “Corporation” includes any corporation, joint-stock company, partnership, association, business trust, organized group of [persons](#1), whether incorporated or not, receiver or receivers, trustee or trustees of any of the foregoing, but shall not include [municipalities](#3) as hereinafter defined.
- (3) “Municipality” means a city, county, or other political subdivision or agency of a [State](#4).
- (4) “State” means a State admitted to the Union, the District of Columbia, and any organized Territory of the United States.
- (5) “Natural gas” means either natural gas unmixed, or any mixture of natural and artificial gas.
- (6) “Natural-gas company” means a [person](#1) engaged in the transportation of [natural gas](#5) in [interstate commerce](#7), or the sale in [interstate commerce](#7) of such gas for resale.
- (7) “Interstate commerce” means commerce between any point in a [State](#4) and any point outside thereof, or between points within the same [State](#4) but through any place outside thereof, but only insofar as such commerce takes place within the United States.
- (8) “State commission” means the regulatory body of the [State](#4) or [municipality](#3) having jurisdiction to regulate rates and charges for the sale of [natural gas](#5) to consumers within the [State](#4) or [municipality](#3).
- (9) “Commission” and “Commissioner” means the Federal Power Commission, and a member thereof, respectively.
- (10) “Vehicular natural gas” means [natural gas](#5) that is ultimately used as a fuel in a self-propelled vehicle.
- (11) “LNG terminal” includes all [natural gas](#5) facilities located onshore or in [State](#4) waters that are used to receive, unload, load, store, transport, gasify, liquefy, or process [natural gas](#5) that is imported to the United States from a foreign country, exported to a foreign country from the United States, or transported in [interstate commerce](#7) by waterborne vessel, but does not include—
  - (A) waterborne vessels used to deliver [natural gas](#5) to or from any such facility; or
  - (B) any pipeline or storage facility subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission under [section 717f of this title](/usc/15/717f.md).

## Source credit

(June 21, 1938, ch. 556, § 2, 52 Stat. 821; Pub. L. 102–486, title IV, § 404(a)(2), Oct. 24, 1992, 106 Stat. 2879; Pub. L. 109–58, title III, § 311(b), Aug. 8, 2005, 119 Stat. 685.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2005—Par. (11). Pub. L. 109–58 added par. (11).

1992—Par. (10). Pub. L. 102–486 added par. (10).

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Termination of Federal Power Commission; Transfer of Functions

The Federal Power Commission was terminated, and its functions, personnel, property, funds, etc., were transferred to the Secretary of Energy (except for certain functions which were transferred to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) by sections 7151(b), 7171(a), 7172(a)(1), 7291, and 7293 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare.