By: Derek Hawkins//August 25, 2015//
Civil
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, HAMILTON, Circuit Judge, and DARRAH, District Judge
FERC – Admin Law – Petition for Review
No. 14-3023; No 13-2326 Pioneer Wind Farm, LLC v. FERC
FERC assignment of costs to connect plant to the grid and mandate to follow certain methodology not arbitrary and capricious.
“To sum up, the interconnection process at issue here includes three studies that give the affected parties multiple opportunities to choose to pursue or to abandon an interconnection agreement. There was an error in the original calculation of the costs that the new capacity proposed by the Generators would entail, and at the Generators’ request, FERC resolved the question who should bear those additional costs. The Generators had the option of connecting to the grid at the 120-megawatt level, paying, or walking away. They did not like those options, but FERC’s conclusion was based on substantial evidence and was not arbitrary. “[W]hen entities before FERC present intensely practical difficulties that demand a solution, FERC must be given the latitude to balance the competing considerations and decide on the best resolution.” NRG Power Mktg., LLC v. FERC, 718 F.3d 947, 955–56 (D.C. Cir. 2013) (quotations and citation omitted)”
Petition Denied