Enron Mail

From:ray.alvarez@enron.com
To:d..steffes@enron.com, linda.robertson@enron.com, robert.frank@enron.com,sarah.novosel@enron.com
Subject:Weird procedural situation
Cc:
Bcc:
Date:Thu, 25 Oct 2001 15:24:44 -0700 (PDT)

OK, here are the facts as I understand them: The CPUC filed petitions for =
review of the FERC's various refund orders in the Ninth Circuit Court of Ap=
peals. There is an unresolved jurisdictional issue that the petitions filed=
in the Ninth Circuit are incurably premature because they sought review of=
orders for which the petitioner was also requesting rehearing. The curren=
t status of the CPUC's Ninth Circuit petitions is that the court has not ye=
t dismissed the petitions as premature and FERC must file the record in the=
Ninth tomorrow, October 26. At that point, under Section 313 of the Feder=
al Power Act, the jurisdiction of the court of appeals becomes exclusive, a=
nd FERC will not be able to modify the orders under review except by leave=
of the court. FERC has filed, and the CPUC is supporting, a motion for an=
order permitting FERC to keep jurisdiction over its orders so that it can =
act on the pending rehearing requests. By all rights, the court should go =
along with this, but it's gone on this long. We are not adversely impacted=
. Arguably if FERC loses jurisdiction, the PNW and CA refund cases should =
come to a complete stop, although this is an unlikely scenario. I will kee=
p you posted of new developments. Ray