Opinion ID: 197774
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: oca.

Text: 52 We turn next to OCA's quest for intervention. For the most part, its arguments parallel those championed by the Grouped Appellants--the six would-be intervenors did, after all, elect to file a consolidated brief--and we reject them for the reasons already stated. We write separately, however, to address one idiosyncratic feature. 53 OCA and two amici, the Ohio Consumers' Counsel and the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, contend that the district court should have allowed OCA to intervene as of right because a New Hampshire statute endows it with the authority to represent residential utility consumers in any proceeding concerning rates, charges, tariffs, and consumer services before any board, commission, agency, court, or regulatory body. N.H.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 363:28(II). This legislative directive requiring OCA to devote its representational zeal entirely to the cause of the consumer contrasts with the PUC's statutory mandate to be the arbiter between the interests of the customer and the interests of regulated utilities. Id. § 363:17-a. Focusing singlemindedly on these disparate statutory missions, OCA and its amici take the position that the PUC cannot adequately represent OCA's interests in this case. 54 A state statute can inform the Rule 24(a)(2) calculus, but it cannot displace the requirement that a would-be intervenor satisfy each of the rule's prerequisites. See Washington Elec. Coop., 922 F.2d at 96-98. Whatever discrepancies exist in the enabling statutes of OCA and the PUC, respectively, a federal court must assess adequacy of representation in light of the issues at stake in the particular litigation. For the reasons previously discussed, the differences in the two agencies' statutory missions are without consequence here; like the Grouped Appellants, OCA can point neither to any legal argument favorable to it that the commissioners are unwilling or unable to make in defense of the Plan, nor to any legal position taken by the commissioners that compromises OCA's interests in any material way. In short, there simply is no divergence of interest between the two bodies in respect to the causes of action pleaded in this litigation. 9 55