Public Utility Commissioner v. Bonneville Power Administration

767 F.2d 622
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided August 1, 1985·No. Nos. 84-3722, 84-7185·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge:

The principal issue in these consolidated cases is whether, under the judicial review provisions of the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 839, et seq. (1982) (the Act), jurisdiction of suits which challenge ongoing agency proceedings on constitutional grounds is solely in the district court, concurrently in the district court and the court of appeals, or exclusively in the court of appeals. A secondary issue is whether we should exercise our own jurisdiction under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a) (1982), to review alleged bias in agency proceedings which have not yet concluded. We conclude that section 9(e)(5) of the Act, 16 U.S.C. § 839f(e)(5) (1982), coupled with the All Writs Act, affords this court exclusive jurisdiction to determine the claims made by petitioners, and that we will not exercise our jurisdiction to do so pending final agency action.

Petitioners, the Public Utility Commissioner of Oregon (Oregon PUC), and three investor-owned utilities (IOU’s) sued the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) in the district court, challenging the constitutionality of ongoing agency proceedings. Petitioners alleged proceedings to revise certain rate formulas were initiated by BPA Administrator Peter Johnson with an unalterably closed mind as to the outcome, and that his participation in the proceedings violated their Fifth Amendment right to due process. The district court dismissed the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Public Utility Commissioner of Oregon v. Bonneville Power Administration, 583 F.Supp. 752 (D.Or.1984). Petitioners appealed from the district court dismissal and filed an original action in this court raising claims identical to those raised in the district court. The appeal and the original action have been consolidated for decision in order to resolve the jurisdictional issues.

We affirm the dismissal of the suit in the district court. As to the action commenced in this court, we lack subject matter jurisdiction under the Act as there is no final agency action, and decline to review petitioner’s challenge by way of mandamus under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a).

To understand the issues posed by the* parties in this case, a brief look at the operation of the Act and the administrative proceedings surrounding this litigation is necessary. One of the goals of the Act is to ensure that residential consumers served by Northwest IOU’s have wholesale rate parity with residential consumers served by publicly owned utilities and public cooperatives, BPA’s preference customers. Parity is to be achieved through Residential Purchase and Sale Agreements between BPA and IOU’s. Under a residential agreement, IOU’s exchange their own higher priced power at its “average system cost” (ASC) for an equivalent amount of lower cost BPA power. The agreement involves bookkeeping entries only; BPA makes a payment to the IOU for the difference between the IOU’s ASC and BPA’s preference rate. The Act re[625] quires the IOU’s to pass the savings on to their customers. 16 U.S.C. § 839c(c)(3) (1982).

BPA is to recoup its losses resulting from residential agreements, i.e., the price differential between the IOU’s ASC and BPA’s preference rate, primarily by charging higher rates to its direct service industrial customers (DSI’s) until July 1, 1985. After that time, other BPA customers may bear a greater portion of the costs of the exchange. See 16 U.S.C. § 839e(c)(l)(B); 16 U.S.C. § 839e(c)(l)(A) (1982). The DSI’s have a particularly strong interest in how the IOU’s ASC was computed for the contract year July 1, 1984 to June 30, 1985, since the rates they pay for power during that contract year establish a floor for all future rates paid by DSPs. See 16 U.S.C. § 839e(c)(2) (1982).

The Act provides that the ASC shall be determined on the basis of a methodology developed by the BPA Administrator in consultation with the Pacific Northwest Electric Power and Conservation Planning Council, BPA’s customers, and regional state regulatory bodies. 16 U.S.C. § 839c(c)(7) (1982). Before the ASC methodology is implemented, it must be approved and confirmed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). See 18 C.F.R. § 35.13(a) (1984).

BPA first adopted a methodology for computing the ASC in August 1981. After interim approval and formal administrative proceedings, FERC gave final approval to the methodology in September 1983. At the request of the DSI’s, BPA initiated a new ASC consultation in October 1983. The DSPs and BPA believed the then current ASC methodology failed to exclude IOU costs required to be excluded by the Act, 16 U.S.C. § 839c(c)(7), resulting in DSI rates that were unlawfully high. After providing for considerable public participation, BPA published a proposed ASC methodology. On February 3, 1984, while public consultation sessions were still-being conducted, petitioners filed suit in the district court alleging that Johnson’s participation in the ASC methodology proceedings denied them due process because Johnson was “absolutely committed” to lowering the ASC calculation, thereby reducing payments to exchanging utilities under the residential agreements. Petitioners sought to have Johnson and his subordinates enjoined from participating in the ASC methodology consultation and asked the district court to delegate decisional authority to an independent hearing officer.

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Public Utility Commissioner v. Bonneville Power Administration, 767 F.2d 622 (9th Cir. 1985).

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