Opinion ID: 3036826
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Canby Claims

Text: Canby asserts that even if the SN CRAC was properly invoked and the SN CRAC proceedings were properly conducted,3 it cannot be subject to the changed rates. That is so, 3 Canby does complain that the SN CRAC was not properly followed in one respect because it went beyond the parameters set forth in the June 2001 ROD, but that issue was not raised in the proceedings before the BPA and cannot now be raised before us. See Universal Health Servs., Inc. v. Thompson, 363 F.3d 1013, 1019-20 (9th Cir. 2004); Cal. Dep’t of Water Res. v. FERC, 341 F.3d 906, 910-11 (9th Cir. 2003). 3798 PUBLIC POWER COUNCIL v. BPA it says, because of a provision in its contract with BPA.4 On September 15, 2000, Canby entered into a five-year contract to purchase power from BPA. That contract was to be subject to the WP-02 Rates for which the 2002 GRSPs had not yet been adopted. When they were adopted, they included the SN CRAC. None of this is disputed. But when BPA first sent the proposed contract to Canby, it included a provision that allowed BPA to adjust rates pursuant to the “Cost Recovery Adjustment Clause in the 2002 GRSPs, or successor GRSPs.” That is a fairly standard provision because most contracts are for a ten-year period, whereas sets of GRSPs are for a five-year period. Canby asked that the “or successor GRSPs” language be stricken. BPA agreed, and the final contract was revised accordingly. Canby now argues that the eliding of the language “or successor GRSPs” was, in effect, designed to eliminate application of the SN CRAC to its rates. It would be surprising to discover that at a time of great uncertainty, BPA chose to tie its own hands by the elliptical route of eliminating a few words from a contract. Canby submitted no evidence at the SN CRAC hearings to support that reading of the contract.5 4 Were Canby’s claim a pure contract claim, we would not have jurisdiction over it. As it is, the claim is inexorably intertwined with the rate proceedings themselves. Thus, jurisdiction does lie in this court. See Transmission Agency of N. Cal. v. Sierra Pac. Power Co., 295 F.3d 918, 926-27 (9th Cir. 2002); Cent. Elec. Coop., Inc. v. Bonneville Power Admin., 835 F.2d 199, 203-04 (9th Cir. 1987); Atl. Richfield Co. v. Bonneville Power Admin., 818 F.2d 701, 705 (9th Cir. 1987) (per curiam); Pac. Power & Light Co. v. Bonneville Power Admin., 795 F.2d 810, 814-16 (9th Cir. 1986). 5 We are well aware of the fact that Canby tried to submit some evidence in support of its argument when it briefed its position at the BPA, and included some information in the excerpts of record that it filed with us. But Canby could not expand the administrative record by submitting evidence with a brief filed with the BPA after the hearing closed. See ProcePUBLIC POWER COUNCIL v. BPA 3799 [4] When the brume generated by Canby’s arguments is blown away, it becomes apparent that BPA properly deemed Canby to be subject to the SN CRAC proceedings and the results of those proceedings. Simply put, once it is agreed that the SN CRAC, which contemplated changes to the FB CRAC, was part of the 2002 GRSPs to which Canby was subject, it inexorably follows that the utilization of those very provisions in the intended manner merely modified the existing CRAC portion of the GRSPs, as was contemplated by the provisions themselves. That did not, and could not, result in “successor GRSPs.” The 2002 GRSPs remained intact in a somewhat different and modified form, but a form contemplated when they were adopted. To put it another way, just as a human being can use an exercise or study regimen to modify himself without creating a successor person,6 so too could the GRSPs be modified by use of the SN CRAC without creating a successor to the GRSPs themselves. [5] In short, Canby cannot avoid the adjusted rates by pointing to the absence of the phrase “or successor GRSPs” in its contract with BPA. Simply put, it was reasonable for BPA to conclude that the deleted phrase was mere surplusage in a five-year contract.