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Administrative Law Keyed to Breyer
Union Electric Co. v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Citation:
890 F.2d 1193 (1989)Facts
Union Electric Company brought its Callaway nuclear power plant into service in December 1984, which would increase wholesale electricity rates by approximately 75%. To mitigate this “rate shock,” Union and its wholesale customers (working as the Wholesale Defense Group or WDG) reached agreements on three approaches: accelerating the amortization of fuel credits from a Westinghouse settlement over two years instead of twenty; amortizing certain Callaway deferred income taxes over three years instead of ten and a half; and delaying the effective date of the rate increase to coincide with retail rate increases. Two municipal customers, Malden and Jackson, had invested in peak-shaving generation facilities in response to Union’s prior rate structure. FERC disregarded the agreements between Union and WDG, imposed an off-peak demand charge specifically targeting customers like Malden and Jackson whose off-peak usage exceeded twice their peak usage, and reduced Union’s allowed rate of return on equity based on a decline in Treasury bond rates without allowing Union to fully challenge the inference that its cost of equity capital moved in lockstep with Treasury rates.
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