Posted on 01/26/2016 3:20:03 PM PST by bananaman22
The U.S. Supreme Court Upholds FERC Order 745: Bad News for Electric Generators and Good News for Consumers
On Monday (January 25) the U.S. Supreme Court, by a 6 to 2 decision, issued a ruling supporting the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Order 745 in a case titled Federal Energy Regulatory Commission vs Electric Power Supply Association (FERC vs EPSA). The issue before the court was whether FERC could compel regional power markets in the U.S. to pay consumers who reduce their electricity usage at critical periods. And if so, at what price? Consumers have adopted a panoply of energy saving technologies collectively known as Demand Response (DR) in part due to the economic inducements offered by FERC supported tariffs.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
I already have something like that. The utility pays me for allowing them to reduce power to my home when they are under load. It usually comes in the form of cutting power to my water heater. It’s seldom an issue, and I don’t pay any attention to it.
Interesting. Although don’t we already sort of get paid by lower bills? Although if they give even more for less usage then average in the neighborhood, that would be pretty cool. Of course some in my neighborhood have solar panels on their roofs so I may be screwed regardless. I am not getting solar until they are way way less then then cost now.
As usual, the 10th Amendment, (state’s rights) no longer apply in America anymore.
bingo.
We have had this program in California for decades, and some rectums got the PUC to cancel it this coming March.
If we used electricity during high demand time from noon to 6 pm we paid more per KWH. We paid less/KWH if we don’t use it during the high demand time.
The only extra cost was a meter with a clock, which we paid for the installation and cost.
We did not have to set up an expensive solar system using a deduction paid by other users.
We just planned our heavy electricity use during the lower rate time.
It worked when our children were in elementary, middle school and high school and with an empty nest.
Now the only way to save will be an expensive and not reliable solar system. Those are really fake savings as other electricity users have to fund the solar scam.
We do our part to reduce consumption but gosh darn, AZ Public Service rates are high!!! Seems we can never win with them!!
”The issue before the court was whether FERC could compel regional power markets in the U.S. to pay consumers who reduce their electricity usage at critical periods.”
FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponents Argument
While it is good that the Supreme Courts decision favors the consumer, please note that the following. Regardless what FDRs state sovereignty-ignoring activist justices wanted everybody to think about the scope of Congresss Commerce Clause powers (1.8.3), a previous generation of state sovereignty-respecting justices had clarified that the states have never delegated to the feds, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to regulate INTRAstate commerce.
”State inspection laws, health laws, and laws for regulating the internal commerce of a State, and those which respect turnpike roads, ferries, &c. are not within the power granted to Congress [emphases added].” - Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824.
So if I understand the Courts decision correctly, for those utility customers who are domiciled in the same state as their utility companies, post-FDR era, state sovereignty-ignoring justices may have wrongly interfered with intrastate commerce, wrongly unconstitutionally expanding the federal governments powers with their decision.
Corrections, insights welcome.
There are 3 electric grids in the country - Eastern, Western, and Texas. Eastern and Western are clearly interstate as defined since FDR got control of the Supreme Court. The Texas grid should be intrastate for purposes of this ruling.
Speaking of right of ways...
One of the best examples of sophistry in a legal case I've ever seen. Wickard ranks right up there with Dred Scott as one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever made.
So thanks to state sovereignty-ignoring FDR, the power grids were evidently established outside the framework of the Constitution imo.
Well, without the multi-state TVA and Bonneville Power Administration, we wouldn’t have been able to end the war with Japan as we did. And rural electrification would have been much slower. (As someone only one generation removed from kerosene lamps, that may be a bigger deal to me than to you).
So, if you really think another million casualties in World War II would have been a good idea, continue your campaign against a national energy policy.
I do not think that another million casualties in WWII would have been a good idea.
Also, other than inexcusably widespread ignorance of the federal governments constitutionally limited powers, there has never been anything stopping the states from delegating to corrupt Congress, expressly via the Constitution, the specific power to establish a national energy policy.
The issue here is to solve the problem of brownouts caused by shutting down a lot of coal plants and bringing online irregular wind power by shutting down people’s appliances to make demand meet supply.
As much as I agree this is an overreach of a government agency, I expect the generation companies have already found find a way to adapt. In the arena of ideas, private enterprises will run rings around bureaucrats.
Me. I get my electricity for free. Ask me how.
www.b2k.myambit.com
Widening of the Commerce Clause ... don’t you just love it?
The insidious part of this is that electric consumption habits could make production more efficient ...
‘... to pay consumers who reduce their electricity usage at critical periods ...’
When tyranny makes the trains run on time, it’s worse in the long run than when it fails.
... That could be a problem with Trump as well.
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