Opinion ID: 218888
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: A Commerce Clause Stream

Text: Section 23(b) requires us to ask whether L.S. Starrett's dam is on a stream over which Congress has Commerce Clause jurisdiction, see 16 U.S.C. § 817(1), i.e., a Commerce Clause stream. The Commission concluded, and L.S. Starrett does not dispute on appeal, that the Millers River is a Commerce Clause stream. See Starrett III, 130 FERC ¶ 61,112, at 61,521 n. 6. We agree with the Commission's assessment because the headwaters and tributaries of navigable waters are [C]ommerce [C]lause streams, id. (citing Fed. Power Comm'n v. Union Elec. Co., 381 U.S. 90, 94-96, 85 S.Ct. 1253, 14 L.Ed.2d 239 (1965)), and the Millers River is a tributary of the Connecticut River, which is navigable, see Starrett II, 129 FERC ¶ 62,053, at 64,161 n. 6.