FERC Judicial Review Tracker

This track­er was launched February 14, 2022. It was last updat­ed September 1, 2022.

The State Energy & Environmental Impact Center has created this tracker to collect court decisions reviewing orders of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).1 This tracker will be updated as new decisions are issued. It will also be expanded to cover earlier years.

Background

Under the statutes governing judicial review of FERC orders, the Federal Power Act and the Natural Gas Act, an aggrieved party must seek rehearing from FERC before filing a petition for review.2 Court decisions reviewing FERC orders thus typically review two orders – an order, and an order on rehearing.

FERC is composed of five members, with no more than 3 from any one political party. The chair is determined by the president.3 FERC must have a quorum of three commissioners participating to take an action. A commissioner might not participate in a case if they are recused due to a conflict or other issue.

In this tracker, we include the history of the FERC orders on review. We list the Commissioner composition and Chair at the time of the final FERC order that was subject to the court decision. And we note which orders include a dissent or partial dissent (commissioners also sometimes concur, but we have not separately listed that data in this tracker for brevity’s sake).

117 cases match your search. 13 were granted, 90 were denied, 13 were granted in part, denied in part.   Download as CSV

California Public Utilities Commission, et al. v. FERC 3/17/2022

Judicial Review

Court
Judge Ideology 4
Case Type
Petitioner Type
Outcome
9th Circuit
Republican
Electric
State Gov
Denied
Petition challenging FERC order (on remand from prior 9th Circuit opinion addressing return on equity incentives) concluding that utility’s membership in the California Independent System Operator was voluntary as outside FERC’s mandate on remand and as arbitrary and capricious denied.

FERC Proceeding

Commissioner Composition 5
Chair 6
Participating Commissioners
Dissenting Commissioners 7
Republican
Chatterjee
3
0

FERC Orders on Review

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 173 FERC 61,045 (2020)

Louisiana Public Service Commission v. FERC 3/15/2022

Judicial Review

Court
Judge Ideology
Case Type
Petitioner Type
Outcome
D.C. Circuit
Republican
Electric
Industry; State Gov
Denied
Petition challenging FERC order allocating price sharing among Entergy operating companies which changed to include certain deferred income tax amounuts in price sharing but only required retroactive payments for some (not all) years denied for failure to seek timely rehearing with FERC.

FERC Proceeding

Commissioner Composition
Chair
Participating Commissioners
Dissenting Commissioners
Republican
Danly
3
0

FERC Orders on Review

Opinion No. 560, 162 FERC 61,234 (2018), order on reh’g, 171 FERC 61,044 (2020), second order on reh’g, 173 FERC 61,152 (2020)

Food & Water Watch and Berkshire Environmental Action Team v. FERC 3/11/2022

Judicial Review

Court
Judge Ideology
Case Type
Petitioner Type
Outcome
D.C. Circuit
Democrat
Gas
NGO
Granted in part, denied in part
Petition challenging NEPA compliance of FERC approval for natural gas pipeline and compressor. One petitioner dismissed for lack of standing. Other petitioner’s NEPA claims dismissed in part, granted in part (requiring FERC NEPA review to consider greenhouse gas).

FERC Proceeding

Commissioner Composition
Chair
Participating Commissioners
Dissenting Commissioners
Republican
Chatterjee
3
1

FERC Orders on Review

Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, L.L.C., 169 FERC 61,230 (2019), reh’g denied, 170 FERC 61,142 (2020)

Long Island Power Authority and Long Island Light Company, D/B/A Lipa v. FERC 3/4/2022

Judicial Review

Court
Judge Ideology
Case Type
Petitioner Type
Outcome
D.C. Circuit
Republican
Electric
Industry; Public Power
Granted in part, denied in part
Petition challenging as procedurally deficient FERC’s approval of a settlement for cost-sharing of high-voltage facilities between different benficiaries that used multiple hybrid formulas denied. Additional challenge to FERC’s assignment of costs to one petitioner based on interpretation of settlement granted.

FERC Proceeding

Commissioner Composition
Chair
Participating Commissioners
Dissenting Commissioners
Republican
Chatterjee
3
0

FERC Orders on Review

PJM Interconnection, L.L.C., 163 FERC 61,168 (2018), reh’g & clar. denied, 169 FERC 61,238 (2019)

In Re: NTE Connecticut, LLC v. FERC 2/24/2022

Judicial Review

Court
Judge Ideology
Case Type
Petitioner Type
Outcome
D.C. Circuit
Democrat
Electric
Industry
Granted
Petition to stay FERC order terminating Killingly’s capacity supply obligation in ISO-NE granted until 30 days after FERC resolves petitioner’s application for agency rehearing.

FERC Proceeding

Commissioner Composition
Chair
Participating Commissioners
Dissenting Commissioners
Democrat
Glick
5
0

FERC Orders on Review

ISO New England Inc., 178 FERC 61,063 (2022)

Cogentrix Energy Power Management, LLC and Vistra Corporation v. FERC 1/28/2022

Judicial Review

Court
Judge Ideology
Case Type
Petitioner Type
Outcome
D.C. Circuit
Republican
Electric
Industry
Denied
Petition for review of FERC order denying recovery of certain costs incurred in complying with reliability requirements prior to the date of filing regarding those proposed costs denied.

FERC Proceeding

Commissioner Composition
Chair
Participating Commissioners
Dissenting Commissioners
Republican
Chatterjee
3
0

FERC Orders on Review

ISO New England Inc.,171 FERC 61,160 (2020), order on reh’g, 172 FERC 61,251 (2020)

NGL Supply Wholesale, LLC v. FERC 1/25/2022

Judicial Review

Court
Judge Ideology
Case Type
Petitioner Type
Outcome
D.C. Circuit
Democrat
Pipeline
Industry
Denied
Petition for review of FERC order holding that it lacked jurisdiction over certain aspects of interconnection to pipeline and also holding that allocation of shared pipeline usage was not improper denied.

FERC Proceeding

Commissioner Composition
Chair
Participating Commissioners
Dissenting Commissioners
Republican
Chatterjee
4
0

FERC Orders on Review

NGL Supply Wholesale, LLC v. Phillips 66 Pipeline LLC, 172 FERC 61,016 (2020)

The City and County of San Francisco v. FERC 1/25/2022

Judicial Review

Court
Judge Ideology
Case Type
Petitioner Type
Outcome
D.C. Circuit
Democrat
Electric
Public Power
Granted
Petition for review of FERC orders holding that PG&E was permitted to refuse to offer secondary-voltage service and that PG&E was allowed to deny service to certain areas under the tariff’s grandfathering provisions granted.

FERC Proceeding

Commissioner Composition
Chair
Participating Commissioners
Dissenting Commissioners
Republican
Chatterjee
4
0

FERC Orders on Review

City and County of San Francisco v. Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 169 FERC 61,128 (2019), order on reh’g 171 FERC 61,196 (2020)

The City and County of San Francisco v. FERC 1/25/2022

Judicial Review

Court
Judge Ideology
Case Type
Petitioner Type
Outcome
D.C. Circuit
Democrat
Electric
Public Power
Granted
Petition for review of FERC orders holding that PG&E was permitted to refuse to offer secondary-voltage service and that PG&E was allowed to deny service to certain areas under the tariff’s grandfathering provisions granted.

FERC Proceeding

Commissioner Composition
Chair
Participating Commissioners
Dissenting Commissioners
Republican
Chatterjee
3
0

FERC Orders on Review

City and County of San Francisco v. Pacific Gas and Electric Company, 171 FERC ¶ 61,021 (2020), order on reh’g 172 FERC ¶ 61,237 (2020)

Duke Energy Progress, LLC v. FERC 1/21/2022

Judicial Review

Court
Judge Ideology
Case Type
Petitioner Type
Outcome
D.C. Circuit
Democrat
Electric
Industry
Denied
Petition for review of FERC Order holding that Power Purchase Agreement did not prohibit municipal power agency from using battery storage technology to reduce demand during peak periods denied.

FERC Proceeding

Commissioner Composition
Chair
Participating Commissioners
Dissenting Commissioners
Republican
Danly
3
0

FERC Orders on Review

North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency, 172 FERC 61,249, (2020), order on reh’g 173 FERC 61,235 (2020)

  1. Court decisions are gathered from FERC’s website.
  2. 15 U.S.C. § 717r; 16 U.S.C. § 825l.
  3. The list of current and previous chairs is available here.
  4. This tracker uses the affiliation of the president who nominated the reviewing judge as a proxy for the judge’s ideology. If the decision was issued by a panel of judges that were not all nominated by a president of the same political party, we have indicated the party affiliation of the president for the majority of judges on the panel.
  5. This indicates the political party affiliation of the majority of the FERC commissioners participating in the last decision on review in the relevant court case. “Split” indicates that there was an even number of Democrats and Republicans on the Commission at the time.
  6. This indicates the FERC chair at the time of the last decision on review in the relevant court case.
  7. This includes Commissioners who dissented in part from the order or concurred in part and dissented in part.