California Department of Water Resources v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

The California Department of Water Resources (“DWR”) petitions for review of a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) order permitting intervenor Pacific Gas and Electric Company (“PG & E”) to include in its tariff for use of PG & E power transmission lines charges for $132 million worth of various facilities previously classified as generation tie lines and generation step-up transformers (“GSUs”). PG & E, a utility which owns the high-voltage electricity transmission lines in California, is required to allow anyone to transmit power over these lines. PG & E may recover costs associated with transmission by charging users a tariff, subject to FERC approval. FERC determined that, because all of the facilities at issue perform some transmission function, PG & E could include their cost in its tariff and roll in the facilities’ costs equally to all transmission users. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 16 U.S.C. § 825i (b) over this petition for review of an order issued by FERC. We deny DWR’s petition for review because its various claims of error are unfounded. FERC’s decision to categorize the facilities as “transmission” based on an exclusive use test and to roll…