Opinion ID: 788622
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 13 Three of the four IAs at issue in these consolidated cases have been cancelled by the parties, with the consent of the Commission. Therefore, the cases arising under those three contracts are now moot, and we lack jurisdiction to hear these petitions. Moreover, because petitioners fail to show injury in fact resulting from the Commission's At or Beyond rule per se, they lack standing to challenge generally the Commission's policies that underlie those orders. 14 A challenge to a specific Commission order regarding an interconnection agreement is moot when the contract is terminated. Northwest Pipeline Corp. v. FERC, 863 F.2d 73, 76-77 (D.C.Cir.1988) (Obviously, the challenged rate terms disappeared into the regulatory netherworld when the certificates themselves entered the archives.... Thus, to the extent it seeks [review of Orders affecting the certificates, Petitioner's] claim is, beyond reasonable dispute, moot.). The Entergy and Southern IAs have joined their predecessors in the regulatory netherworld; Entergy and Southern bring no live controversy to this court. Arguably, at least, the flaw in jurisdiction over two of the IAs should be viewed entirely in terms of standing rather than mootness, as Entergy and Southern (with reference to its second petition) had already terminated their IAs before seeking the assistance of an Article III court. By way of comparison, in Advanced Management Technology, Inc. v. FAA, 211 F.3d 633 (D.C.Cir.2000), we had to decide whether standing or mootness doctrine applied in a situation where the petitioner filed its challenge to the agency's termination of a contract after the agency had re-awarded the contract to petitioner. The claim may sound like one of mootness-a justiciable controversy existed but no longer remains-but the timing makes [Petitioner's] problem one of standing.... Standing is assessed `at the time the action commences,' i.e., in this case, at the time [Petitioner] sought relief from an Article III court. Id. at 636 (quoting Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Servs., Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 191, 120 S.Ct. 693, 145 L.Ed.2d 610 (2000)) (internal citation omitted). In any event, we lack Article III jurisdiction to consider their specific complaints. 15 Petitioners treat the justiciability analysis as a question of mootness. Under the mootness analysis, Petitioners argue that a challenge to agency action is not moot where there is a reasonable chance of the dispute arising again between the government and the same [petitioner]. Legal Assistance for Vietnamese Asylum Seekers v. Dep't of State, 74 F.3d 1308, 1311 (D.C.Cir.1996) ( LAVAS ), vacated on other grounds, 519 U.S. 1, 117 S.Ct. 378, 136 L.Ed.2d 1 (1996). Granted, we so held in LAVAS, but that is not a parallel for the present case. In LAVAS, we noted that the precedents upon which we relied therein stood for the proposition that the government cannot escape the pitfalls of litigation by simply giving in to a plaintiff's individual claim without renouncing the challenged policy.... Id. That is not what happened in the petition before us today. The government did not give in; Petitioners abandoned the petition. While it may be true that the government cannot by selective surrender establish mootness to prevent challenge to its policies, this does not prevent mootness from occurring where the would-be challengers have abandoned the case or controversy that they would have us decide. The Entergy and Southern petitions fall into the latter category, not the former. There is no ongoing case or controversy. These challenges are moot. 16 These Petitioners cannot take refuge under the broader doctrine of capable of repetition yet evading review. See, e.g., Weinstein v. Bradford, 423 U.S. 147, 148-49, 96 S.Ct. 347, 348-49, 46 L.Ed.2d 350 (1975). The very contracts at issue establish operative terms of at least ten years. Some were of indefinite duration. Such contracts provide ample time for both administrative and judicial review. Indeed, the present petition did not evade review; Petitioners themselves chose to abandon the undertakings that gave rise to the controversy. If further proof is needed that such contracts do not fall within that exception to the mootness rule, the petition of Nevada Power, which remains an active controversy before us, clearly establishes that an IA need not evade review. 17 Southern and Entergy claim that they are nonetheless before the court with a justiciable controversy because they are asserting facial challenges to the ongoing policy as well as seeking review of their underlying contracts. This argument also fails to keep them in court. While it is true that a petitioner with a mooted individual controversy may at times have standing to challenge an ongoing policy, such a petitioner must demonstrate standing to obtain each type of relief sought. See City of Houston v. HUD, 24 F.3d 1421, 1429 (D.C.Cir.1994). Even if we assume that Entergy and Southern have properly raised a challenge to Commission policies beyond the specific orders for which they have sought review, they have not demonstrated that they have standing to challenge such ongoing policies. 18 To meet the irreducible constitutional minimum for standing, petitioners must show, inter alia, that they suffer an actual injury in fact which is caused by the Commission's policy. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 2136-37, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). The Commission's At or Beyond rule challenged by Petitioners does not affect Entergy or Southern until they are confronted with it in a matter before the Commission regarding a live interconnection agreement. Until then, they are in a position identical to that of any other utility company whose hypothetical future interconnection agreements may be evaluated according to the rule. To open the courthouse doors to Entergy and Southern for the purposes of their policy challenge disembodied from the original Commission orders would open the door to every other utility company's challenges to Commission policies. Federal courts do not have the jurisdiction to render advisory opinions on such matters, with respect to FERC or any other administrative agency. 19 Entergy and Southern lack standing to proceed before this Court. This Court therefore lacks jurisdiction over the Entergy and Southern petitions. 1 Their cases are dismissed.