Schuette v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

(1) Whether the Federal Power Act"s requirements that interstate electric rates be "just and reasonable," and non-preferential, 16 U.S.C. § 824d(a)"(b), require that charges associated with regional power-grid upgrades be allocated to consumers on a basis proportional with the benefits those consumers will receive from the upgrades (as the D.C. Circuit has held) or instead allow charges to be socialized, such that consumers must pay an equal share for power-grid upgrades that overwhelmingly benefit others (as the Seventh Circuit held here); and (2) whether the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must conduct an evidentiary hearing under 16 U.S.C. § 824d when utilities and state agencies come forward with admissible evidence creating material questions of fact regarding the costbenefit analysis of new proposed charges associated with regional power-grid upgrades anticipated to cost billions of dollars.