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Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', 'art, 247', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23', '§ 23']

FPC V. UNION ELECTRIC CO., 381 U. S. 90 (1965) - US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE
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FPC V. UNION ELECTRIC CO., 381 U. S. 90 (1965)
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4. Since the original Federal Water Power Act was concerned with the utilization of water resources, and particularly the power potential in water, there is no anomaly in the FPC's position that steam plants generating energy for interstate transmission are not within the scope of § 23(b), although located on a stream over chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
which Congress has jurisdiction, while similar hydroelectric facilities are covered by § 23(b). Pp. 381 U. S. 109-110.
Section 23(b) [Footnote 1] of the Federal Power Act [Footnote 2] requires any person desiring to construct a dam or other project on a nonnavigable stream, but one over which Congress has jurisdiction under its authority to regulate commerce, to file a declaration of intention with the Federal Power Commission. If the Commission finds that "the interests of interstate or foreign commerce would be affected by such proposed construction," the declarant may not construct or operate the project without a license. The issue here is whether the construction of a pumped storage hydroelectric project generating energy for interstate transmission is one which would affect the "interests of interstate or foreign commerce" within the intendment of the Act. chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Respondent Union Electric Co. (Union), operating generating plants and an interconnected transmission and distribution system in Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa, filed a declaration of intention pursuant to § 23(b) to construct a pumped storage hydroelectric facility, the Taum Sauk installation, as a part of Union's interstate system. The pumped storage plant, an engineering innovation of growing use, is to supplement the energy produced by other plants during periods of peak demands. During such periods, it generates energy through use of hydroelectric units driven by water falling from an elevated reservoir into a lower pool. [Footnote 3] During off-peak periods, it uses energy from other sources to pump water from the lower pool back to the headwater pool. [Footnote 4] The project is capable chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
of creating up to 350 megawatts, and the energy created will be utilized in Missouri, Illinois, and possibly Iowa. Taum Sauk is to be located on the East Fork of the Black River, about four miles above the confluence of these waters. [Footnote 5] The East Fork is a nonnavigable tributary of the Black River, itself a navigable stream along with the White River into which it flows.
The FPC found the East Fork was a stream "over which Congress has jurisdiction under its authority to regulate commerce," since it is a headwater of a navigable river system. The project would affect the interests of commerce and would require a license, the FPC also held, both because it contemplated the utilization of water power for the interstate transmission of electricity and because it would affect downstream navigability, 27 F.P.C. 801. The Court of Appeals reversed, 326 F.2d 535 (C.A.8th Cir.) holding that the only "commerce" which is relevant to the FPC's determination under § 23(b) is commerce on the downstream navigable waterway, and that the project in question would have no significant impact on water commerce. [Footnote 6] Absent an chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
To focus the inquiry, it is well to state what is not involved in this case. There is no question that the interstate transmission of electric energy is fully subject to the commerce powers of Congress. Public Utilities Comm'n v. Attleboro Steam & Electric Co., 273 U. S. 83, 273 U. S. 86; Electric Bond & Share Co. v. Securities & Exchange Comm'n, 303 U. S. 419, 303 U. S. 432-433. Nor is there any doubt today that projects generating energy for such transmission, such as Taum Sauk, affect commerce among the States, and therefore are within the purview of the commerce power quite without regard to the federal control of tributary streams and navigation. See Labor Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U. S. 1, 301 U. S. 40-41; 301 U. S. 301-304. But see United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co., 107 F.2d 769, rev'd on other grounds,@ 311 U. S. 311 U.S. 377. [Footnote 7] Thus, there are no constitutional doubts or barriers to the FPC's interpretation. The only question is whether Congress has required a license for a water power project utilizing the headwaters of a navigable river to generate energy for an interstate power system. We think an affirmative answer is required by both the language and purposes of the Act.
The language of the Act, in our view, plainly requires a license in the circumstances of this case. Section 23(b) [Footnote 8] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The scope of this language is not restricted by the earlier clause in § 23(b) limiting the filing requirements chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
to projects on nonnavigable streams "over which Congress has jurisdiction under its authority to regulate commerce" that is, tributaries of river systems necessitating supervisory power to preserve or improve downstream navigability or water commerce generally. See United States v. Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., 174 U. S. 690; Phillips v. Guy F. Atkinson Co., 313 U. S. 508. This language merely designates those who must file a declaration of intention -- all those who would locate a water power project on a nonnavigable stream within the jurisdiction of Congress are required to declare their intention so that the Commission may determine the necessity for a license. Congress then proceeds to invoke its full authority over commerce, without qualification, to define what projects on nonnavigable streams are required to be licensed. Respondent asserts that commerce must mean the same thing in both the filing and licensing requirements of § 23(b); because of the allusion to water commerce in the filing provision, the Commission's inquiry into the effect of the project on commerce must be limited to the source of Congress' power over the stream. Nothing in the structure or syntax of § 23(b) compels this conclusion. Indeed, in describing in distinct terms the standard for who must file and what must be licensed, [Footnote 9] the more compelling inference is that Congress intended chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
the inquiry into the project's effect on commerce to include, but not be limited to, effect on downstream navigability. [Footnote 10]
The central purpose of the Federal Water Power Act was to provide for the comprehensive control over those uses of the Nation's water resources in which the Federal Government had a legitimate interest; these uses included navigation, irrigation, flood control, and, very prominently, hydroelectric power -- uses which, while unregulated, might well be contradictory, rather than harmonious. [Footnote 11] Prior legislation in 1890 and the Rivers and Harbors chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Act of 1899, [Footnote 12] prohibiting the erection of any obstruction to navigation, including those on nonnavigable feeders, United States v. Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., 174 U. S. 690, and requiring the consent of Congress and approval of the Secretary of War before constructing a bridge, dam, or dike along or in navigable waters, was thought inadequate, for it accommodated only the federal interest in navigation. As this Court has had occasion to note before, the 1920 Federal Water Power Act
First Iowa Hydro-Electric Coop. v. Federal Power Comm'n, 328 U. S. 152, 328 U. S. 180. The principal use to be developed and regulated in the Act, as its title indicates, was that of hydroelectric power to meet the needs of an expanding economy. [Footnote 13] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Other provisions regulate the operations, services, charges, and duration of hydroelectric plants, [Footnote 15] "provisions . . . not essential to or chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
even concerned with navigation as such," but which "have an obvious relationship to the exercise of the commerce power." United States v. Appalachian Electric Power Co., 311 U. S. 377, 311 U. S. 424, 311 U. S. 427. In order to insure comprehensive control over the utilization of the Nation's waterways, "navigable stream" was broadly defined to include the interrupting falls, shallows, rapids and the waterways authorized by or recommended to Congress for improvements; [Footnote 16] and other recognized sources of federal authority were invoked, such as jurisdiction over public lands and national forests. [Footnote 17]
Union's earnest position, however, is that the legislative history of the Act reveals a more limited purpose and requires a narrower construction of § 23(b). The core of the argument is that the constitutional basis for the Act generally, and for § 23(b) in particular, was the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
We cannot distill as much as Union does from the long and intense legislative struggle to enact what was a decided innovation in federal policy. The Act unquestionably involved an invocation of the congressional power over navigation under the Commerce Clause, since it required a license to build any water power project on a navigable stream, broadly defined, [Footnote 18] regardless of any actual effect on navigation. There was, consequently, considerable debate about the scope and extent of the federal power over river navigation, about the definition of "navigable waters," and about the authority of Congress to impose controls and conditions having little relevance chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
to the protection of navigation. [Footnote 19] Some thought the Commerce Clause did not extend to anything but the navigable mainstream itself, and then only for the purpose of preserving or improving water transportation. This broad objection to the Act found expression in remarks directed at § 23(b) and in assertions that the power over navigation was not sufficient to require the licensing of projects on nonnavigable streams, save perhaps where downstream navigability was substantially affected. [Footnote 20] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Since the opponents of the Act mounted a major attack on the federal power over navigation, and this was a well recognized basis of Commerce Clause authority, the proponents defended on this ground. Navigation, and federal power over it, hence permeated the debates, and statements reflecting the understandings and disagreements chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
But none of this history can fairly be said to meet, much less determine, the question presented here. That question is not whether Congress exercised its authority over navigation in the Federal Water Power Act, which it most assuredly did, but whether, in enacting § 23(b), it also invoked its full Commerce Clause authority over hydroelectric projects located on waters subject to federal jurisdiction. The fact that there were debates over the extent of federal power over navigation, or over navigable or nonnavigable streams, sheds little light on whether Congress did, or did not, intend to rely on other aspects of its power over commerce when it directed a Commission determination of the effects of a proposed project on the "interests of commerce." It is true that the debates on § 23(b), taking the course that they did, contain no express references to interstate commerce in electrical energy, perhaps because the authority to regulate the production of goods destined for interstate shipment was far less defined and understood at that time, see Hammer v. Dagenhart, 247 U. S. 251, decided in 1918, and perhaps because no one was inclined to inject other constitutional issues into the ongoing debates. [Footnote 21] But the chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Act which emerged from these debates, and § 23(b) in particular, was couched in terms which reached beyond the control of navigation and forms no support for the proposition that Congress intended to equate the "interests of commerce" with those of navigation. [Footnote 22]
Indeed, this history indicates that Congress was differentiating between the two. The House version of § 23(b) granted permission to construct a dam on a nonnavigable stream, and provided for a license if the Commission found the improvement justified for the purpose of improving or developing the waterway "for the use or benefit of navigation in interstate or foreign commerce." [Footnote 23] The Senate Committee, along with the expansion of the definition of navigable waters, amended this to require the Commission to make an immediate investigation and to prohibit the construction without a license if the Commission found that "the interests of interstate or foreign commerce would be affected." [Footnote 24] Only if the Commission did not so find was the declarant granted permission to construct upon compliance with state laws. No one offered any explanation for the substitution of the inclusive term "affect the interests of interstate commerce." [Footnote 25] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
But conservationists and opponents seemed to agree that the Act embodied the full measure of Congress' authority under the Commerce Clause to regulate hydroelectric projects. [Footnote 26] And there is no evidence that the sponsors of the Act, who prevailed in securing its enactment in the broad terms they drafted, intended a construction of interstate or foreign commerce narrower than their constitutional counterparts. In the face of numerous objections to this exercise of federal authority, we find it of compelling significance that the Congress adopted comprehensive language and refrained from writing any limitation or reference to navigation into § 23(b).
H.R.Rep. No. 1318, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., 26. To the same effect, see S.Rep. No. 621, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
S.Rep. No. 621, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., 47. See also H.R.Rep. No. 1318, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., 26. And on the floor of Congress, objections to federal control over projects on nonnavigable streams similar to those voiced in 1920 were again rejected as inconsistent with effective water power regulation. 79 Cong.Rec. 10568. Moreover, there was promptly eliminated an amendment to § 23 which would have required a license only when the "interests of interstate or foreign commerce would be directly affected or burdened by such proposed construction." [Footnote 28] chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The respondent asserts that an anomalous consequence flows from the Commission's construction of the Act and its view that steam plants generating large amounts of energy for interstate transmission are not within the scope of § 23(b), although located along a stream over which Congress has jurisdiction. Since the Commission's jurisdiction here rests solely on the interstate transmission of energy, there can be no basis for distinguishing chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
326 F.2d 551. On this reasoning, either the Act should, but does not, require a license for a steam plant when situated on the navigable mainstream itself, or should not, but does, require a license for a hydroelectric plant, pumped storage or otherwise, situated on the mainstream but which has no demonstrable effect, or a beneficial effect, on navigability. The answer to this conundrum is that, unlike Part II of Title II of the Public Utility Act of 1935, under which the Commission regulates various aspects of the sale and transmission of energy in interstate commerce, Part I, the original Federal Water Power Act, is concerned with the utilization of water resources, and particularly the power potential in water. In relation to this central concern of the Act, [Footnote 29] the distinction between a hydroelectric project and a steam plant is obvious, and meaningful, although both produce energy for interstate transmission. [Footnote 30]
The Court of Appeals noted that the Commission's novel construction "represents a decided departure from its administrative construction of [the] statute" and "one not based upon generally acknowledged limits of jurisdiction adhered to throughout the years." 326 F.2d 552. Congress must be deemed to have accepted this consistently held administrative view.
I agree with the Court that there "is no question that the interstate transmission of electric energy is fully subject to the commerce powers of Congress," and that projects chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
generating energy for such transmission, whether they use water or steam, "are within the purview of the commerce power, quite without regard to the federal control of tributary streams and navigation." Ante at 381 U. S. 94. The basic question here presented, however, is one of statutory interpretation: whether Congress exercised fully its commerce power, requiring licenses of those whose projects, built on nonnavigable streams, affect interstate or foreign commerce in any way, or whether Congress wished to require licenses only of those whose projects affect interstate or foreign commerce on navigable waters. From the time the provision in question was enacted in 1920 until 1962, the Federal Power Commission believed the latter interpretation to be correct, and did not attempt to require a license unless commerce on navigable waters was affected. In 1962, however, the Commission
"New Regulatory Policies," Forty-second Annual Report of the Federal Power Commission 23 (1962). [Footnote 2/1] I believe that the Commission's earlier interpretation, consistently chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
The Court's conclusion, supporting the Commission's new theory that a license is required if a project affects the interests of interstate or foreign commerce in any way, seems to be based upon an overly literal reading of the statute. The statute provides that a license is required if the Commission finds that "the interests of interstate or foreign commerce would be affected by such proposed construction." With all deference, I do not believe that the interpretation of the Court and the Commission that this language establishes that Congress intended to exercise the full reach of its commerce power can be maintained, for the legislative history of this provision clearly reveals that the "interests of . . . commerce" to which Congress refers are the interests of commerce on navigable waters. Statements by congressional proponents of the Federal Water Power Act and others, when the Act was first enacted in 1920, make clear an intent that licensing be required only when interests of commerce on navigable waters are affected. [Footnote 2/2] Moreover, after a considerable period during which the Commission consistently interpreted the licensing provision in accordance with this congressional intent, the statute was reenacted in 1935. At that time, statements of the drafters of the Act [Footnote 2/3] and the Senate and House Reports on the Act [Footnote 2/4] again clearly indicated chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
Ante at 381 U. S. 110. However, even in terms of the "power potential in water," I fail to find a relevant distinction between a plant which artificially pumps water to an elevated reservoir in off-peak periods allowing it to fall and generate chanroblesvirtualawlibrary
electricity at peak periods and a plant which heats water to create steam which generates electricity. I see no purpose of the Act that justifies producing this anomaly in the regulatory scheme. Under my view, of course, when interstate or foreign commerce is affected, Congress can constitutionally require licenses of both steam and hydroelectric projects, of either steam or hydroelectric projects, or of neither. The legislative history here, however, establishes to my satisfaction that it has required licenses of neither steam plants nor the type of hydroelectric plant here involved, and, in light of this legislative history, I agree with the Court of Appeals that Congress intended that a license be required only where the interests of commerce on navigable waters are affected. [Footnote 2/6]
See 381 U. S. See also 56 Cong.Rec. 8917, 9038; 57 Cong.Rec. 4638-4639; 59 Cong.Rec. 6529-6531, 7723, 7725, 7730.
See 381 U. S.
See 381 U. S. 2, supra.
Hearings before the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, 74th Cong., 1st Sess., 391. (Emphasis added.) chanroblesvirtualawlibrary