Opinion ID: 1373126
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Proceedings before the FERC and the District Court

Text: In August of 2004 (after RPGI changed power suppliers from MidAmerican to Ameren), CIPCO filed a complaint with the FERC under § 206 of the FPA, 16 U.S.C. § 824e, which gives the FERC the authority to review the reasonableness of publicutility rates for transmissions or sales subject to its jurisdiction. CIPCO alleged that MISO had failed to pay for MISO's use of CIPCO's transmission system in violation of MISO's own OATT, and CIPCO requested that the FERC require MISO to include a separate charge for the use of CIPCO facilities within MISO's OATT. Alternatively, CIPCO requested that the FERC state that nothing in its order permits [MISO] to use [CIPCO's] facilities. Cent. Iowa Power Coop., 110 FERC at ¶ 61,389. After notice of the administrative complaint was published, Alliant intervened in support of CIPCO, and RPGI intervened in support of MISO. In an order issued in February of 2005, the FERC concluded that because CIPCO is not a regulated public utility under the FPA, the FERC does not have jurisdiction over CIPCO's provision of transmission service and is consequently without authority to regulate CIPCO's rates. The FERC rejected CIPCO's request for relief, but explained that: [I]f the parties were to agree on (or a court with jurisdiction were to determine) a charge to be paid by [MISO] or [Alliant] and then reflected in a jurisdictional rate, then the jurisdictional entity, whether it be [Alliant] or [MISO], could file the proposed charge with [FERC]. [FERC] has previously held that, if [CIPCO] believes that its arrangements with [Alliant] do not properly account for the use of [the ITS] and for sharing of revenues from third-party uses, [CIPCO] may file a complaint under section 206 of the FPA to modify [its] arrangements, i.e., to modify the O & T Agreement. Id. at ¶ 61,392 (footnote omitted). And while the FERC denied CIPCO's request for relief, it made clear that nothing in [its] order should be construed as a determination that [MISO] may use [CIPCO's] facilities without compensation. Id. at ¶ 61,393. CIPCO then filed a request for rehearing and for clarification of the record. The FERC denied the request for rehearing and clarified its prior order in part. It again rejected CIPCO's argument that MISO was the jurisdictional provider of the transmission service at issue. Rather, the FERC determined that the service at issue is transmission service over [CIPCO's] facilities. Cent. Iowa Power Coop. v. Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., 113 FERC ¶ 61,116, 61,427 (Nov. 1, 2005). The FERC also explained that [CIPCO] attaches unwarranted reliance on the fact that the O & T Agreement is on file with the Commission. [CIPCO] was not the entity to file the O & T Agreement with the Commission. The O & T Agreement is jurisdictional with respect to the service provided thereunder by [Alliant], the jurisdictional public utility that filed it. Id. (footnote omitted). In March of 2006, CIPCO filed a petition against MISO, RPGI, and RPGI members in Iowa state court, asserting theories of breach of an implied-in-fact contract, unjust enrichment, trespass, and conversion. The appellees removed the case to federal court, and CIPCO moved to remand the case to state court. The district court denied the motion to remand, concluding that the adjudication of CIPCO's state law claims necessarily depended on the resolution of disputed and substantial federal issues. While the motion to remand was pending, MISO and RPGI moved to dismiss CIPCO's claims, arguing that the claims were preempted by the FPA. The district court granted the motion. This appeal follows.