Competitive Energy Services LLC v. Public Utilities Commission, 2003 ME 12

Summary

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the Public Utilities Commission’s approval of Bangor Hydro-Electric Company’s reorganization and affiliation with Emera Energy Services, Inc., a competitive electricity provider. The court held that 35-A M.R.S.A. § 3206-A(2)(A) did not prohibit the affiliate from selling electricity in Maine because it was created after the acquisition of Bangor Hydro. The court dismissed as moot the challenge to an employee lease agreement because the agreement had been terminated.

Holdings

1. The January 8 order was not a final judgment because it resolved only a threshold legal issue, approved none of the specific requests in Bangor Hydro's petition, and left further Commission action necessary. Accordingly, the statutory interpretation issue could be reviewed in the appeal from the March 21 final order.
2. Section 3206-A(2)(A) prohibits a competitive electricity provider from selling or offering generation service to Maine retail consumers when the provider was a related entity of a purchasing entity at the time the purchasing entity purchased 10% or more of a transmission and distribution utility. Because EES was created after Emera acquired Bangor Hydro, EES was not a related entity subject to subsection (A)'s prohibition.
3. Competitive Energy Services' challenge to the employee lease agreement was moot because the Commission had approved termination of the agreement, leaving no real, substantial, and live controversy capable of resolution by specific appellate relief. None of the recognized exceptions for collateral consequences, great public concern, or an issue capable of repetition but evading review applied.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the prior dismissal of the appeal from the Commission's January 8 order prevented review of the Commission's interpretation of 35-A M.R.S.A. § 3206-A(2) in the appeal from the later final order.
2. Whether 35-A M.R.S.A. § 3206-A(2) prohibits a competitive electricity provider created after the acquisition of a transmission and distribution utility from affiliating with that utility and selling electricity in Maine.
3. Whether the appeal challenging approval of the employee lease agreement was moot after the Commission approved termination of the agreement, and whether any exception to mootness applied.

Disposition

other