Commissioner James Danly Statement
October 29, 2021
Docket No. ER21-2238-001
I concur in today’s order accepting as just and reasonable the facilities cost recovery service agreement (FSA) between ITC Great Plains, LLC and Iron Star Wind Project, LLC.[1]
I write separately to state that the order should have directly addressed the filing parties’ assertion that: “[U]nder the Commission’s Mobile-Sierra doctrine, this Service Agreement and its terms are a freely-negotiated bilateral contract rate which the Commission must presume is just and reasonable absent a showing that the agreement seriously harms the public interest.”[2] The filing parties repeatedly reiterated this point in their deficiency response.[3]
Yet, the order merely notes “that the record demonstrates that terms of the agreement are the result of a negotiated compromise and the agreement has been executed by the two parties.”[4]
The filing parties are correct. The Mobile-Sierra presumption applies, and the public interest standard governs any future changes either by the filing parties or the Commission. The majority’s silence on the matter does not change this result.
For these reasons, I respectfully concur.
[1] Sw. Power Pool, Inc., 177 FERC ¶ 61,053 (2021).
[2] SPP June 29, 2021 Transmittal, Attach. A at 6 (citation omitted); see also United Gas Pipe Line Co. v. Mobile Gas Serv. Corp., 350 U.S. 332 (1956); FPC v. Sierra Pac. Power Co., 350 U.S. 348 (1956).
[3] SPP August 30, 2021 Transmittal, Attach. A at 1, 4-5.
[4] Sw. Power Pool, Inc., 177 FERC ¶ 61,053 at P 18.