HARRISBURG — State public utility regulators have been advised to reject an effort by a natural gas pipeline firm that could subject its unregulated pipelines to safety standards, but also help it secure the power of eminent domain on private property.

An administrative law judge, in a decision posted online Wednesday, recommended that Laser Northeast Gathering not be given status as a public utility.

“The service offered is not offered ‘to or for the public,’ as the Public Utility Code requires, but is simply the commercial process used to carry natural gas from the producers to market,” administrative law judge Susan D. Colwell wrote in her decision.

Laser’s application was the first of its kind to coincide with the Marcellus Shale gas-drilling boom in Pennsylvania, as companies and investors from around the world pour billions of dollars into the United States’ largest known natural gas reservoir.