United States Ninth Circuit

In this action challenging the Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA) decision not to seek refunds of unlawful subsidies that the BPA previously gave to certain longtime industrial customers, petitions for review are: 1) denied with respect to the decision not to seek refunds on the 2007 Block Contracts and the Port Townsend Contract, where BPA had no general constitutional or statutory duty to seek a refund any time it made an unlawful payment, and BPA reasonably explained why the challenged refund decisions were not inconsistent with their earlier decision to seek recovery of different payments that had been declared unlawful by the court; and 2) granted and remanded with respect to recovery of subsidies paid under the Alcoa Amendment, where BPA did not sufficiently and reasonable balance its competing obligations.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/18/2014
• Published 09/18/2014

Judges

• Berzon

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel