Opinion ID: 6936498
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The SEC Proceeding

Text: The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1936, 15 U.S.C. § 79a et seq. (1988 & Supp. V 1993) (“PUHCA”), requires that, before approving an acquisition, the SEC must determine that the transaction “will serve the public interest by tending towards the economical and efficient development of an integrated public-utility system.” City of New Orleans v. SEC, 969 F.2d at 1166 (citing 15 U.S.C. § 79j(c)(2)). The SEC originally determined that the Entergy spin-off satisfied PUHCA’s statutory requirements and the Commission granted Entergy approval. On appeal, however, this court ruled that in making the spin-off determination, the SEC had not taken into account “the System’s increased costs that will result from having to replace the spin-off plants in the future ... [or] ... the fact that System costs will increase because alternative sources of energy available to the System are more expensive than the type used by the spin-off plants.” Id. at 1167. Because of that omission, we remanded the case for further development of the administrative record. See id. at 1169.