Blog Viewer

Court Issues Ruling in Clarksville Challenge to FERC Order

By Dave Schryver posted 04-26-2018 11:27 AM

  
On April 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a ruling vacating a 2014 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order challenged by Clarksville, Tenn. In that Order, FERC ruled that the city of Clarksville would be subject to Natural Gas Act (NGA) jurisdiction for a sale of gas to another local distribution company (LDC) that took place entirely in Tennessee. The sale was to the city of Guthrie, Ky., in Tennessee. Guthrie then transported the gas across the Tennessee-Kentucky border for use in Guthrie’s distribution system. Clarksville challenged the ruling, arguing that the order was inconsistent with numerous FERC precedents over the years in which FERC ruled that a municipality that sold or transported gas entirely within its state of origin was not subject to NGA jurisdiction.

APGA and the American Public Power Association jointly filed an Amicus Brief in support of Clarksville, arguing, among other things, that Congress explicitly excluded municipalities from FERC’s jurisdiction under the Natural Gas Act and Federal Power Act and urged the court to uphold the municipal exemption by vacating the Order. The Brief also stated that that “municipally owned gas systems have been completely justified to rely upon their status as municipalities to exempt them from FERC jurisdiction” and that FERC’s departure from this critical precedent was arbitrary and capricious.


A copy of the Court’s ruling, as well as the Amicus Brief filed by APGA and APPA, is available on the APGA website. For questions on this article, please contact Dave Schryver of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at dschryver@apga.org.

Permalink