Opinion ID: 185384
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Failure to Properly Intervene and Obtain Party Status

Text: 9 The Commission treated each contract termination as a separate proceeding and assigned each its own docket number, though it disposed of them on a consolidated basis. PCA sought to become a party to each proceeding by intervention. The Commission permitted PCA to intervene in most proceedings but denied intervention in the six proceedings involving Idaho Power Co.; PG&E Energy Trading-Power, L.P.; South Jersey Energy Co.; Vitol Gas & Electric LLC; El Paso Energy Marketing Co. 3 ; and Cook Inlet Energy Supply, L.P. See New York State Elec. & Gas Corp., 85 F.E.R.C. p 61,196 (1998) (denying PCA's motions to intervene in the Vitol and Cook Inlet proceedings); Southern Co. Energy Mktg. L.P., 86 F.E.R.C. p 61,131 (1999) (denying intervention in the Idaho Power and South Jersey Energy Co. proceedings); PG&E Energy Trading-Power, L.P., 86 F.E.R.C. p 61,303 (1999) (denying intervention in the PG&E Energy and El Paso proceedings). As a consequence, PCA was not party to these six proceedings. 10 We have no jurisdiction over proceedings in which PCA is not a party because only part[ies] to a proceeding may seek judicial review under the Federal Power Act. See 16 U.S.C. § 825l(b). The Commission concluded that PCA did not properly intervene and therefore did not become a party to these six proceedings. PCA did not file timely motions to intervene, and the Commission was not obligated to accept untimely ones. 11 PCA claims that FERC had no grounds on which to deny intervention. Final Brief of Petitioner at 35. Under the Commission's rules, however, the burden is on the untimely movant to show good cause to intervene. See 18 C.F.R. § 385.214(b)(3). PCA has not demonstrated good cause, certainly not to a degree sufficient to warrant our upsetting the Commission's application of its own procedural rule. PCA also asserts that the Commission arbitrarily considered only good cause, to the exclusion of four other factors identified in the rule. Final Brief of Petitioner at 36-38. Failure to establish good cause is, however, a sufficient condition to deny intervention, so the Commission was not obligated to consider any other factor. See 18 C.F.R. § 385.214(b)(3). 4