Public Utility District No. 1 Of Snohomish County v. Dynegy Power Marketing, Inc.Public Utility District No. 1 Of Snohomish County v. Dynegy Power Marketing, Inc.
Terry J. Houlihan and Nora Cregan, Bingham McCutchen LLP, San Francisco, CA, Joel B. Kleinman, Dickstein Shapiro Morin & Oshinsky LLP, Washington, D.C., John M. Grenfell, Pillsbury Winthrop LLP, Peter H. Benzian, Latham & Watkins LLP, Jeffrey M. Shohet, Gray, Cary, Ware & Freidenrich, LLP, San Diego, CA, Theodore Spanos, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, Bryan A. Merryman, White & Case LLP, Los Angeles, CA, J. Clifford Gunter, III, and Andrew Edison, Bracewell & Patterson LLP, Houston, TX, Douglas M. Butz, Butz Dunn Desantis & Bingham, San Diego, CA, Carlton A. Varner, Timothy B. Taylor, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, San Diego, CA, for the defendants-appellees.
Colin A. Yost, Assistant Attorney General — Oregon, Salem, OR, and Ken Alex, Deputy Attorney General — California, San Francisco, CA, for Amici Curiae.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California, Robert H. Whaley, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-02-01993-RHW.
Before: SCHROEDER, Chief Judge, CANBY, and TALLMAN, Circuit Judges.
SCHROEDER, Chief Judge:
The district court held that the claims were preempted by federal law, which authorizes the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC“) to set wholesale electricity rates. Snohomish appeals, сontending that FERC‘s policy of setting rates in accordance with market forces amounts to an abdication of rate making. Because FERC has exclusive jurisdiction over interstate sales of wholesale electricity, and continues to engage in regulatory activity, we affirm. See California v. Dynegy, Inc., 375 F.3d 831, 850-853 (9th Cir. 2004); Pub. Utility Dist. No. 1 оf Grays Harbor County Washington v. Idacorp, Inc., 379 F.3d 641 (9th Cir. 2004).
BACKGROUND
Before 1996, FERC reviewed electricity rates that were cost-based. The primary factor in setting the rate was the cost of producing and transmitting the electricity. Power suppliers proposed rates by adding up their costs and accounting for an expected rate of return. FERC reviewed and approved tariffs that contained detailed breakdowns of costs and specified rates of return. See
In 1996, California changed this cost-based system of setting wholesale electricity rates to a market-based system, where the rate was determined in a structured market. The California legislature passed Assembly Bill 1890,
The PX operated a market for the purchase and sale of eleсtricity in the “day-ahead” and “day-of” markets. The price in these markets was set by evaluating bids submitted by market participants. A seller could submit a series of bids that consisted of price-quantity pairs representing offers to sell (e.g. 5 units at $50 each, but 10 units if the price is $100 each). Similarly, a buyer could submit a seriеs of bids that consisted of price-quantity pairs representing offers to buy. The PX would then establish aggregate supply and demand curves and set the “market clearing price” at the intersection of the two curves. Then every exchange would take place at the market clearing рrice, even though some buyers had been willing to pay more and some sellers had been willing to sell for less.
The ISO managed the transmission network, managing imbalances between supply and demand and maintaining the reliability of the transmission grid. As part of these responsibilities, it operated a “real-timе” or “spot” market used to balance supply and demand at precise points in time. For example, if customer demand for a particular hour was not met, then the ISO was required to procure power on the spot market to maintain the stability of the grid. In the markets the PX and ISO managed, rаtes for wholesale electricity rose dramatically during 2000 and 2001. This caused consumer utilities to pay record high prices to traders and generators.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
In this suit, Snohomish alleges that the defendants violated the Cartwright Act,
The consumer utilitiеs that were the buyers in the California wholesale markets have instituted proceedings before FERC on these matters. FERC has investigated the defendants’ practices, and issued an order that describes the market manipulation techniques Snohomish alleges, analyzes whether these practices violate any of the tariffs filed with FERC, and outlines appropriate remedies. See Am. Elec. Power Serv. Corp. et al., 103 FERC ¶ 61,345 (2003). The order provides a detailed discussion of the practices challenged here.
Snohomish‘s complaint alleged these practices caused Snohomish “to pay prices for electricity in excess of rates that would have been achieved in a competitive market.” Snohomish asked the district court to enjoin the defendants from engaging in unlawful and unfair business acts, order the defendants to disgorge all monies wrongfully obtained, order the defendants to pay restitution, award compensatory and treble damages, and award costs, interest, and attorney‘s fees.
The district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, ruling under three alternative but related theories that it did not have jurisdiction to resolve the issues raised in Snohomish‘s complaint. The district court ruled that Snohоmish‘s claims were barred by both the filed rate
DISCUSSION
Snohomish argues that the preemption doctrines, upon which the district court relied, should not apply when market-based rates are involved because the market, and not FERC, is determining the rates. The fundamental question in this case is whether, under the mаrket-based system of setting wholesale electricity rates, FERC is doing enough regulation to justify federal preemption of state laws. The answer to this question is controlled by two recent decisions of this court: Dynegy, 375 F.3d 831, and Grays Harbor, 379 F.3d 641. Under the system at issue here, FERC has waived many of the requirements that applied under the cost-based system. For example, the actual prices are no longer filed with FERC 60 days before they can be charged and the utilities do not provide FERC with detailed schedules of their costs. Instead, the price of wholesale electricity is determined in the markets operated by the PX and the ISO.
FERC continued to oversee wholesale electricity rates, however, by reviewing and approving a variety of documents filed by the defendants, the PX, and the ISO. First, each seller was to file a market-based umbrella tariff, which “preauthorizes the seller to engage in market-based sales and puts the public on notice that the seller may do so.” California v. British Columbia Power Exchange Corp. (“BC Power Exchange I“), 99 FERC ¶ 61,247, 61,247 (2002). FERC approved these market-based tariffs only upon a showing that the seller lacked or had mitigated its market power. Id.; see also La. Energy & Power Auth. v. FERC, 141 F.3d 364, 365 (D.C. Cir. 1998). The theory is that a seller cannot raise its рrice above the competitive level without losing substantial business to rival sellers unless the seller has market power, and therefore that FERC‘s determination that a seller lacks market power provides a “strong reason to believe” that sellers will be able to charge only just and reаsonable rates. See Elizabethtown Gas Co. v. FERC, 10 F.3d 866, 871 (D.C. Cir. 1993) (discussing the Natural Gas Act).
Second, FERC required each seller to file quarterly reports, which contained certain required information including the minimum and maximum rate charged and the total amount of power delivered during the quarter. FERC has found this requirement necessary to ensure that rates will be on file as required by
After the energy crisis unfolded, FERC ordered wholesalers to disgorge profits that resulted from the kinds of practices Snohomish has alleged here. FERC found that many of these practices were prohibited by the protocols that were filed as part of the PX and ISO tariffs. See generally Am. Elec. Power Serv. Corp. et al., 103 FERC ¶ 61,345.
This court has rejected Snohomish‘s argument that the preemption-related doctrines at issue do not apply when market-based rates are involved. Grays Harbor, 379 F.3d at 651-53. In Grays Harbor, we were cоnfronted with issues that are nearly identical to those involved here. Id. at 646 n. 3. The plaintiff in that case brought state-law contract claims against a company that sold wholesale electricity seeking rescission and reformation of a contract that was entered into at the height of the energy crisis when wholesale electricity prices were near their peak. The plaintiff alleged that the high prices were the result of market manipulation and asked the court to afford relief after determining “a price that reflects a fair price absent dysfunction, maniрulation and the intentional withholding of electric power....” Id. at 646. Our court concluded that the same three preemption-related doctrines that the district court relied on here required the dismissal of the claims in Grays Harbor. We concluded that the district court was precluded from giving the plaintiff the relief it sought because, to award that relief, the district court would have had to determine a “fair price.” Id. at 648. We held that this would interfere with FERC‘s exclusive jurisdiction to set wholesale rates and was therefore barred by field preemption, conflict preemption, and the filed rate doctrine. Id. at 648, 651-53.
Snohomish‘s claims in this case allege violations of state antitrust and unfair competition law rather than the state contract law claims involved in Grays Harbor, but Snohomish‘s claims also ask the district court to determine the rates that “would have been achieved in a competitive market.” This is the same determination as the “fair price” determination that we held was barred by preemption principles in Grays Harbor. We therefore hold that Snohomish‘s claims are barred by the filed rate doctrine, by field preemption, and by conflict preemption.
Snohomish also requests injunctive relief, but our court hаs also held that this relief is barred by the filed rate doctrine and preemption principles. California v. Dynegy, 375 F.3d at 852-53. In Dynegy, we held that the State of California‘s claims for violations of California‘s unfair competition law,
FERC approved tariffs that governed the California wholesale electricity markets. Therefore, if the prices in those markets were not just and reasonable or if the defendants sold electricity in violation of the filed tariffs, Snohomish‘s only option is to seek a remedy before FERC. We therefore affirm the district court‘s order dismissing Snohomish‘s claims for lack of jurisdiction.
AFFIRMED.