United States Seventh Circuit

Petitions for review of an FERC decision holding that the transmission of electricity be priced on the basis of the cost to American Electric of transmitting one more unit of electricity is denied where there is no economic basis for American Electric reflecting sunk costs in its rates and shifting the costs to other members as it did not expect when it built the facilities that any part of their cost would be defrayed by anyone besides its customers. Petition for review of the FERC's holding concerning the pricing of new facilities that have a capacity of 500 kilovolts or more is granted where the Commission failed to articulate how the new lines are enough of a benefit to justify the costs that it wants shifted to those utilities.

Appellate Information

• Argued 04/13/2009
• Decided 08/06/2009
• Published 08/06/2009

Judges

• POSNER, Circuit Judge., Before CUDAHY, POSNER, and TINDER, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• John P. Kelliher, Christine F. Ericson, Office of the Attorney General, Illinois Commerce Commission, Chicago, IL, Paul Berks (argued), Office of the Attorney General, Civil Appeals Division, Chicago, IL, for Petitioner Illinois Commerce Commission., Steven J. Ross (argued), Steptoe & Johnson, Washington, DC, for Intervening Petitioner American Electric Power Service Corporation., Steven A. Weiler, Leonard, Street and Deinard, Washington, DC, Randall Verne Griffin, Dayton Power and Light Co., Dayton, OH, for Petitioner Dayton Power and Light Co., Duane W. Luckey, Office of the Attorney General, Columbus, OH, for Petitioner Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.


• For Appellees:
  
• Jennifer S. Ammerkhail, Carol J. Banta (argued), Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC, for Respondent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission., Glen Ortman, Stinson Morrison Hecker, Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent Old Dominion Electric Cooperative., Gary J. Newell, Thompson Coburn, Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent American Municipal Power-Ohio Inc., Robert A. Weishaar, Jr., McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC, Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondents PJM Industrial Customer Coalition, Coalition of Midwest Transmission Customers., Jodi Rosen Wine, Elizabeth Ward Whittle, Nixon Peabody LLP, Chicago, IL, for Intervening Respondent Strategic Energy LLC., Miles H. Mitchell, Office of the People's Counsel, Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent Public Service Commission of Maryland., Donald A. Kaplan, John L. Longstreth, K&L Gates LLP, Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent PPL Electric Utilities Corp., Catherine E. Stetson (argued), Hogan & Hartson LLP, Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent Virginia Electric and Power Co., Tamara L. Linde, PSEG Services Corp., Newark, NJ, for Intervening Respondents PSEG Companies and PSEG Energy Resources and Trade., Peter K. Matt, Bruder, Gentile & Marcoux, L.L.P., Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent Pepco Holdings, Inc., David M. Connelly, Dominion Resources Services, Inc., Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent Public Service Electric & Gas Co., Michael R. Engelman, Dickstein Shapiro, Kenneth M. Simon, Dickstein Shapiro, Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent New York Power Authority., Kenneth G. Jaffe, Alston & Bird, Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent FirstEnergy Service Co., Barry S. Spector, Wright & Talisman, Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent PJM Interconnection., Rachel Jeanne Lehr, Trenton, NJ, for Intervening Respondent New Jersey Board of Public Utilities., Gary E. Guy, Baltimore Gas ad Electric Co., Baltimore, MD, for Intervening Respondent Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., A. Karen Hill, Exelon Corporation, Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent Exelon Corporation., David E. Goroff, Bruder, Gentile & Marcoux, L.L.P., Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent Atlantic City Electric Co., Denise C. Goulet, Miller, Balis & O'Neil, P.C., Washington, DC, for Intervening Respondent North Carolina Electric Membership Corp., William F. Fields, Maryland Office of People's Counsel, Baltimore, MD, for Intervening Respondent., Margaret E. Comes, Office of the Attorney General, Newark, NJ, New Jersey Bd. of Public Utilities, for Intervening Respondent New Jersey Bd. of Public Utilities.