Duquesne Light Co. et al. v. Barasch et al. (488 U.S. 299)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 11, 1989 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 488 U.S. 299 · 109 S. Ct. 609
- Decided
- January 11, 1989
- Term
- October Term 1988
- Vote
- 8–1
- Majority author
- Justice Rehnquist
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. Pennsylvania law required that rates for electricity be fixed without consideration of a utility’s expenditures for electrical generating facilities which were planned but never built, even though the expenditures were prudent and reasonable when made. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held that such a law did not take the utilities’ property in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. We agree with that conclusion, and hold that a state scheme of utility regulation does not “take” property simply because it disallows recovery of capital investments that are not “used and useful in service to the public.” 66 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 1315 (Supp. 1988). I In response to predictions of increased demand for electricity, Duquesne Light Company (Duquesne) and Pennsylvania Power Company (Penn Power) joined a venture in 1967 to build more generating capacity. The project, known as the Central Area Power Coordination Group (CAPCO), involved three other electric utilities and had as its objective the construction of seven large nuclear generating units. In 1980 the participants canceled plans for construction of four of the plants. Intervening events, including the Arab oil embargo and the accident at Three Mile Island, had radically changed the outlook both for growth in the demand for electricity and for…
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