The Price of Dissent

The maverick on the Federal Power Commission is William R. Connole, 37, a Connecticut political independent. For the past five years Connole has built a reputation as a dissenter from his colleagues, a defender of the consumer by urging stricter regulation of natural gas prices. He was the lone dissenter in the precedent-setting C.A.T.C. case (TIME, July 8,1957), when the FPC allowed new field gas sales worth $1 billion without final approval of the rates. Connole's dissent was implicitly endorsed by the U.S. Supreme Court when it criticized the FPC decision, upholding the contention of New York State's Public Service Commission that the failure to set firm rates did not sufficiently protect the consumer. Last week the White House confirmed reports that Dissenter Connole would not be reappointed when his term expires on June 22. His likely successor: Harold I. Baynton, now chief counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee.

Keen, combative Connole is a Hartford lawyer who was appointed to the FPC in 1955 after serving as general counsel of the Connecticut Public Utilities Commission. When word got out that he was not to be reappointed, seven state public utility commissions protested. Unmoved, the White House said that the President decided not to reappoint Connole because he does not get along with the other commissioners, has urged greater federal control of gas than the Administration believes is necessary. Explained a presidential aide: "There is no reason to keep a man in a job whose philosophy does not agree with that of the President."

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