Court Opinion

ID: 9635132
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 13:38:17.503694+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:19.451949
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION BY
Judge PELLEGRINI.
Because I would hold that the Public Utility Commission (Commission) does not have jurisdiction to determine who “owns” alternative energy credits, I respectfully dissent.
In 1978, Congress enacted the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA), codified and relevant to this case at 16 U.S.C. §§ 796(17)-(22) and 16 U.S.C. § 824a-3. PURPA required that regulated electric utilities offer to purchase electric energy from alternative power sources in the form of cogeneration and small power production facilities. To purchase PURPA power, regulated utilities entered into purchase power agreements with those alternative suppliers— non-utility generators, either on their own or at the Commission’s direction.
In 2004, the General Assembly passed the Alternative Energy Portfolio Stan*1215dards Act (AEPSA),1 which required increasing percentages of electricity to be sold from designated energy sources. 73 P.S. §§ 1648.1-1648.8. Instead of selling customers the required percentage of electricity from those sources, Section 3 of AEPSA, 73 P.S. § 1648.3, gave the regulated utility the option to purchase alternative energy credits.2 Because the credits had a value independent from the electricity that was created by the alternative energy source, AEPSA created a derivative that could be bought and sold. Because one of PURPA’s stated purposes was the promotion of energy conservation and it encouraged the development of alternate energy sources, the electricity involved in the PURPA purchase power agreements at issue in this case appeared to qualify as “alternative energy sources” that, correspondingly, created an “alternative energy credit.”
The ultimate question involved in this appeal is who owns the alternative energy credits under the PURPA purchase power agreements — the regulated utilities or the non-utility generators. The majority affirms the Commission’s decision that the regulated utilities, not the non-utility generators, own the credits. Because I would vacate the Commission’s decision, as it does not have jurisdiction under AEPSA to decide that issue, I respectfully dissent.
The Commission contends that it has been given jurisdiction on the issue of who owns the credits under the purchase power agreements pursuant to the italicized language in 73 P.S. § 1648.3(e). That provision provides:
(e) Alternative energy credits.—
(1) The commission shall establish an alternative energy credits program as needed to implement this act. The provision of services pursuant to this section shall be exempt from the competitive procurement procedures of 62 Pa. C.S. (relating to procurement).
(2) The commission shall approve an independent entity to serve as the alternative energy credits program administrator. The administrator shall have those powers and duties assigned by commission regulations. Such powers and duties shall include, but not be limited to, the following:
(i) To create and administer an alternative energy credits certification, tracking and reporting program. This' program should include, at a minimum, a process for qualifying alternative energy systems and determining the manner credits can be created, accounted for, transferred and retired.
(ii) To submit reports to the commission at such times and in such manner as the commission shall direct.
(3) All qualifying alternative energy systems must include a qualifying meter to record the cumulative electric production to verify the advanced energy credit value. Qualifying meters will be approved by the commission as defined in paragraph (4).
(4) (i) An electric distribution company or electric generation supplier shall comply with the applicable requirements of this section by purchasing sufficient *1216alternative energy credits and submitting documentation of compliance to the program administrator.
(ii) For purposes of this subsection, one alternative energy credit shall represent one megawatt hour of qualified alternative electric generation, whether self-generated, purchased along with the electric commodity or separately through a tradable instrument and otherwise meeting the requirements of commission regulations and the program administrator. (Emphasis added.)
Nothing in the italicized language gives the Commission the authority to determine who owns an alternative energy credit under a purchase power agreement. All that it authorizes the Commission to do is to determine how the credits are created, how they are tracked and how they are retired.
Because the Commission has not been given jurisdiction to hear who owns the alternative energy credits, I would hold that who owns the alternative energy credits is a matter of contract law required to be heard in courts of common pleas. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
Judge SMITH-RIBNER joins in this dissenting opinion.

. Act of November 30, 2004, P.L. 1672; 73 P.S. §§ 1648.1-1648.8.

. “ ‘Alternative energy credit.’ A tradable instrument that is used to establish, verify and monitor compliance with this act. A unit of credit shall equal one megawatt hour of electricity from an alternative energy source. The alternative energy credit shall remain the property of the alternative energy system until the alternative energy credit is voluntarily transferred by the alternative energy system.” 73 P.S. § 1648.2.