Association of Public Agency Customers, Inc. v. Bonneville Power Administration

Confronted by unprecedented market pressures, the Bonneville Power Administration (“BPA”) undertook a searching re-examination of its business strategy. As a result, BPA proposed profound alterations in its relationships with certain large industrial customers. At issue in this consolidated appeal are the administrative decisions effecting the transition, which are challenged by a number of widely divergent interest groups. After careful consideration, we deny all the petitions for review.

BACKGROUND

In order to assess whether BPA’s actions were arbitrary and capricious, or outside its statutory authority, we must place. BPA’s decision in proper context. Thus, an understanding of the statutory framework guiding BPA and the origins of the market forces which informed the BPA’s Administrator (“Administrator”) in reaching his conclusions is necessary.

BPA is a federal agency within the Department of Energy created by Congress in 1937 originally to market low-cost hydroelectric power generated by the Federal Columbia River Power System, a series of dams along the Columbia River in, Oregon and Washington. 16 U.S.C. §§ 832 -832m. Congress has since expanded BPA’s mandate to include…