New York et al. v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission et al. (535 U.S. 1)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 4, 2002 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 535 U.S. 1 · 122 S. Ct. 1012
- Decided
- March 4, 2002
- Term
- October Term 2001
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Stevens
- Issue area
- Judicial Power
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court. These cases raise two important questions concerning the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or Commission) over the transmission of electricity. First, if a public utility “unbundles” — i. e., separates — the cost of transmission from the cost of electrical energy when billing its retail customers, may FERC require the utility to transmit competitors’ electricity over its lines on the same terms that the utility applies to its own energy transmissions? Second, must FERC impose that requirement on utilities that continue to offer only “bundled” retail sales? In Order No. 888, issued in 1996 with the stated purpose of “Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Non-Discriminatory Transmission Services by Public Utilities,” FERC answered yes to the first question and no to the second. It based its answers on provisions of the Federal Power Act (FPA), as added by §213, 49 Stat. 847, and as amended, 16 U. S. C. §824 et seq., enacted in 1935. Whether or not the 1935 Congress foresaw the dramatic changes in the power industry that have occurred in recent decades, we are persuaded, as was the Court of Appeals, that FERC properly construed its statutory authority. I In 1935, when the FPA became law, most electricity was sold by vertically integrated utilities that had constructed their own power…
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