California Power Exchange Corp. v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

We must decide whether a California municipality and a California public utility which operates an auction for trading electricity are entitled to extraordinary relief from nonfinal orders of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission addressing the crisis surrounding California’s restructuring of its electricity market.

I

A

In 1996, the California legislature embarked upon a major restructuring of the California power industry with the passage of Assembly Bill 1890 (“AB 1890” or “Electricity Restructuring Act”). Act of September 23, 1996, 1996 Cal. Legis. Serv. 854 (A.B.1890) (West). Several features of this complex legislation and the decisions of the California Public Utilities Commission (“CPUC”) implementing the restructuring are relevant to the petitions before us.

First, AB 1890 provided for the creation of the California Power Exchange (“CalPX”), a nonprofit entity that would provide an auction market for the trading of electricity. Electricity Restructuring Act § 1(c). CalPX commenced operations in March 1998. Initially, it operated only a single-price auction for day-ahead and day-of electricity trading (the “CalPX spot markets” or the “CalPX Core markets”). CalPX…