Opinion ID: 1947875
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Commission's Past Failure to Assert Jurisdiction

Text: The Commission's previous failure to assert jurisdiction is clearly relevant, but not conclusive or determinative of the Commission's authority over ESNG. A failure to do so is simply a fact to consider in light of the overall regulatory nature of ESNG's activities and their potential effects on the public interest. An agency is not forever bound by its prior determinations, but if an agency does depart from prior precedent, it must either distinguish or rationally explain its departure. City of Alma v. U.S., S.D.Ga., 744 F.Supp. 1546, 1562 (1990); see also Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Ass'n v. State Farm Mutual Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 42, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 2866, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983). This Court will uphold an agency's change of position if it reasonably explains how its new policy achieves the goals of the Act better than, or at the very least, as well as, the old policy. City of Alma, 744 F.Supp. at 1561 (citing New York Council Ass'n of Civil Technicians v. Federal Labor Relations Authority, 2d Cir., 757 F.2d 502, 508 (1985)). Based on these considerations we find both reasonable and valid the Commission's explanation that to fulfill its responsibility under 26 Del.C. § 202(c) [sic] permitting competition while protecting the public interest, the PSC must be in a position to prevent competition with public utilities where to do so would be in the public interest, as well as to promote and foster competition where the public would thereby benefit. In re Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company, PSC Docket No. 92-2, Order No. 3372, at 23 (Feb. 11, 1992).