Pennsylvania Water Power Company v. Federal Power Commission/Dissent Douglas

by William O. Douglas

United States Supreme Court

343 U.S. 414

Pennsylvania Water Power Company  v.  Federal Power Commission

 Argued: April 3 and 4, 1952. --- Decided: May 26, 1952

Mr. Justice DOUGLAS, with whom Mr. Justice REED concurs, dissenting.

There is more to these cases than meets the eye. On the surface they seem to be only an illustration of the exploitation of the public by a utility through the charging of excessive rates. But far greater issues lurk in the record. There is lawless conduct that overshadows the evils of extortionate rates. It is lawless conduct that violates the Sherman Act. It implicates not only the utilities but the regulatory agency as well. The desire to reduce excessive rates should not blind us to the greater evil. It is far better that one public utility win one more legal skirmish in its struggle against regulation, than that we abandon legal standards and let the regulatory agency run riot.

We start here with the exploitation of the public through an unholy alliance between two public utility companies-Penn Water and Consolidated. That alliance has been condemned by the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. See 184 F.2d 552; 194 F.2d 89. The alliance was illegal because it violated the Sherman Act. It was an arrangement that permitted Penn Water to be operated as though it were a department of Consolidated. All competition between the two companies was destroyed, as evidenced by the fact that in 1948 Consolidated vetoed a steam electric generating plant to be built by Penn Water at Holtwood, Pennsylvania. What Penn Water may do, the revenues it receives, the costs it will incur are largely determined by Consolidated under these illegal contracts.

The Commission in its opinion on rehearing said, 'If there are questions as to the legality of the foundation contracts which are in litigation, as respondents' application for rehearing indicates, the validity of our order is not dependent upon the decision of those questions. In our opinion and order we took care to leave the continuation of the operation of the integrated and interconnected system in full effect, merely changing the rates, * * *.' (Italics added.) 8 F.P.C. 170, 175. The Commission has accordingly approved the unholy alliance. It has allowed Consolidated to continue to manage Penn Water as though the latter were its alter ego. It is therefore disingenuous for the Court to say that hereafter Penn Water is subject to control by the Commission, not by Consolidated, and that the Commission did not premise any of its findings on the assumed existence and continuation of the illegal contracts. No matter how vehement our denial, the truth is that the Commission has laced Penn Water to Consolidated under a management contract that leaves Penn Water no initiative of private management.

Of course the Commission has authority under § 202 of the Federal Power Act to promote and at times compel interconnection and coordination of the facilities of public utility companies. But I know of no power in the Commission that authorizes it to place one company on the back of another company, to merge and consolidate companies as it chooses, or to give the management of one company a veto power over the management of a competitor. Those are practices which the Sherman Act condemns, and which nothing in the Federal Power Act sanctions.

These cases should be reversed and remanded to the Commission with directions that the Commission build its rate order on the powers that it has under the Federal Power Act, not on the unholy alliance that these utilities created and that the Commission has sought to perpetuate.

Notes