Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf
Page Number: 331

170 

NRG  POWER  MARKETING,  LLC  v.  MAINE  PUB. 
UTIL.  COMM’N 
Opinion of the Court 

The  Settlement  Agreement  installed  a  “forward  capacity 
market”  under  which  annual  auctions  would  set  capacity 
prices;  auctions  would  be  conducted  three  years  in  advance 
of  the  time  when  the  capacity  would  be  needed.  Devon 
Power  LLC,  115  FERC  ¶ 61,340,  pp.  62,304,  62,306–62,308 
(2006).  Each  energy  provider  would  be  required  to  pur­
chase enough capacity to meet its share of the “installed ca­
pacity  requirement,”  i. e.,  the  minimum  level  of  capacity 
needed to maintain reliability on the grid, as determined by 
the  ISO.  Id.,  at  62,307.  For  the  three-year  gap  between 
the ﬁrst auction and the time when the capacity procured in 
that  auction  would  be  provided,2  the  Agreement  prescribed 
a  series  of  ﬁxed,  transition-period  payments  to  capacity-
supplying generators.  Id., at 62,308–62,309. 

The  issue  before  us  centers  on  § 4.C  of  the  Agreement 
(hereinafter Mobile-Sierra  provision).  Under that pro­
vision,  challenges  to  both  transition-period  payments  and 
auction-clearing  prices  would  be  adjudicated  under  “the 
‘public  interest’  standard  of  review  set  forth  in  United 
Gas  Pipe  Line  Co.  v.  Mobile  Gas  Service  Corp.,  350  U. S. 
332  (1956)[,]  and  [FPC]  v.  Sierra  Paciﬁc  Power  Co.,  350 
U. S.  348  (1956)  (the  ‘Mobile-Sierra’  doctrine).”  App.  95. 
Mobile-Sierra applies, § 4.C instructs, “whether the [price is 
challenged] by a Settling Party, a non-Settling Party, or [by] 
the FERC acting sua sponte.”  Ibid. 

FERC approved the Settlement Agreement, “ﬁnding that 
as  a  package,  it  presents  a  just  and  reasonable  outcome  for 
this  proceeding  consistent  with  the  public  interest.”  115 
FERC,  at  62,304.  The  Mobile-Sierra  provision,  FERC  ex­
plicitly determined, “appropriately balances the need for rate 
stability and the interests of the diverse entities who will be 
subject  to  the  [forward  capacity  market’s  auction  system].” 
Id., at 62,335. 

2 The transition period runs from December 1, 2006, to June 1, 2010.