Washington Energy Report - May 13

Ninth Circuit Finds Scope of FERC's California Energy Crisis Remand Proceedings Too Narrow, Remands for Further Proceedings

On April 29, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (the "Ninth Circuit") held that FERC failed to comply with the court's remand order in a 2004 case involving the California Energy Crisis—California ex rel. Lockyer v. FERC ("Lockyer")—by improperly structuring its administrative fact-finding proceeding to focus solely on the accumulation by wholesale power sellers of excessive market share, and not including an analysis of possible deficiencies in transaction reporting by those sellers.  The court remanded the case back to FERC for further proceedings. [Read more]