Federal Energy Regulatory Commission v. Electric Power Supply Association (577 U.S. 260)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 25, 2016 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 577 U.S. 260 · 136 S. Ct. 760
- Decided
- January 25, 2016
- Term
- October Term 2015
- Vote
- 6–2
- Majority author
- Justice Kagan
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice KAGAN delivered the opinion of the Court. The Federal Power Act (FPA or Act), 41 Stat. 1063, as amended, 16 U.S.C. § 791a et seq., authorizes the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) to regulate "the sale of electric energy at wholesale in interstate commerce," including both wholesale electricity rates and any rule or practice "affecting" such rates. §§ 824(b), 824e(a). But the law places beyond FERC's power, and leaves to the States alone, the regulation of "any other sale"-most notably, any retail sale-of electricity. § 824(b). That statutory division generates a steady flow of jurisdictional disputes because-in point of fact if not of law-the wholesale and retail markets in electricity are inextricably linked. These cases concern a practice called "demand response," in which operators of wholesale markets pay electricity consumers for commitments not to use power at certain times. That practice arose because wholesale market operators can sometimes-say, on a muggy August day-offer electricity both more cheaply and more reliably by paying users to dial down their consumption than by paying power plants to ramp up their production. In the regulation challenged here, FERC required those market operators, in specified circumstances, to compensate the two services equivalently-that is, to pay the same price to demand response providers for…
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