United States v. Golden Valley Electric Association

The United States petitioned the district court for an order enforcing a Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) subpoena served on Golden Valley Electric Association (“Golden Valley”) for power consumption records concerning three customer residences. The court granted the petition and ordered compliance. Golden Valley complied with the subpoena but appealed the order. We hold that the appeal is not moot and affirm on the merits.

I.Background

Golden Valley is a member-owned cooperative providing electricity to roughly 44,-000 meters in Fairbanks and other localities in the interior of Alaska. In late 2010, the DEA was investigating suspected violations of the Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. § 801 et seq., by several of Golden Valley’s customers. As part of its investigation, the DEA served an administrative subpoena on Golden Valley pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 876 (a). The subpoena ordered Golden Valley to provide company records pertaining to electricity consumption at three specified customer addresses. The records subpoenaed were:

Golden Valley did not immediately comply with the subpoena.

The government petitioned the district court pursuant to § 876(c) for an…