PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

If a person, electric utility, State, municipality, or State commission that is a party is unhappy with a Commission order, they may ask the Commission for a rehearing within 30 days. The request must say the specific reasons why. The Commission can grant, deny, or change its order without another hearing. If the Commission does not act within 30 days after the request is filed, the request can be treated as denied. You must ask for a rehearing before going to court. Before the case record is sent to a court, the Commission can still change or cancel any finding or order after giving reasonable notice. A party may ask a U.S. court of appeals for review where the utility is located or in the D.C. Circuit by filing a petition within 60 days after the Commission rules on the rehearing. The court clerk sends a copy to the Commission, which must file the record with the court. Once the record is filed, that court has exclusive power to affirm, change, or set aside the order. The court usually will not consider objections not raised in the rehearing unless there was a good reason. The Commission’s factual findings stand if supported by substantial evidence. The court may allow new evidence to be taken before the Commission, which can then change its findings and send them to the court. The court’s judgment is final except for possible review by the Supreme Court under section 1254 of title 28. Filing for rehearing or court review does not stop the Commission’s order unless the Commission or the court specifically orders a stay.

Title 16, §825l

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Application for rehearing; time periods; modification of order

Any person, electric utility, State, municipality, or State commission aggrieved by an order issued by the Commission in a proceeding under this chapter to which such person, electric utility, State, municipality, or State commission is a party may apply for a rehearing within thirty days after the issuance of such order. The application for rehearing shall set forth specifically the ground or grounds upon which such application is based. Upon such application the Commission shall have power to grant or deny rehearing or to abrogate or modify its order without further hearing. Unless the Commission acts upon the application for rehearing within thirty days after it is filed, such application may be deemed to have been denied. No proceeding to review any order of the Commission shall be brought by any entity unless such entity shall have made application to the Commission for a rehearing thereon. Until the record in a proceeding shall have been filed in a court of appeals, as provided in subsection (b), the Commission may at any time, upon reasonable notice and in such manner as it shall deem proper, modify or set aside, in whole or in part, any finding or order made or issued by it under the provisions of this chapter.

(b)Judicial review

Any party to a proceeding under this chapter aggrieved by an order issued by the Commission in such proceeding may obtain a review of such order in the United States court of appeals for any circuit wherein the licensee or public utility to which the order relates is located or has its principal place of business, or in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, by filing in such court, within sixty days after the order of the Commission upon the application for rehearing, a written petition praying that the order of the Commission be modified or set aside in whole or in part. A copy of such petition shall forthwith be transmitted by the clerk of the court to any member of the Commission and thereupon the Commission shall file with the court the record upon which the order complained of was entered, as provided in section 2112 of title 28. Upon the filing of such petition such court shall have jurisdiction, which upon the filing of the record with it shall be exclusive, to affirm, modify, or set aside such order in whole or in part. No objection to the order of the Commission shall be considered by the court unless such objection shall have been urged before the Commission in the application for rehearing unless there is reasonable ground for failure so to do. The finding of the Commission as to the facts, if supported by substantial evidence, shall be conclusive. If any party shall apply to the court for leave to adduce additional evidence, and shall show to the satisfaction of the court that such additional evidence is material and that there were reasonable grounds for failure to adduce such evidence in the proceedings before the Commission, the court may order such additional evidence to be taken before the Commission and to be adduced upon the hearing in such manner and upon such terms and conditions as to the court may seem proper. The Commission may modify its findings as to the facts by reason of the additional evidence so taken, and it shall file with the court such modified or new findings which, if supported by substantial evidence, shall be conclusive, and its recommendation, if any, for the modification or setting aside of the original order. The judgment and decree of the court, affirming, modifying, or setting aside, in whole or in part, any such order of the Commission, shall be final, subject to review by the Supreme Court of the United States upon certiorari or certification as provided in section 1254 of title 28.

(c)Stay of Commission’s order

The filing of an application for rehearing under subsection (a) shall not, unless specifically ordered by the Commission, operate as a stay of the Commission’s order. The commencement of proceedings under subsection (b) of this section shall not, unless specifically ordered by the court, operate as a stay of the Commission’s order.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification In subsec. (b), “section 1254 of title 28” substituted for “section 239 and 240 of the Judicial Code, as amended (U.S.C., title 28, secs. 346 and 347)” on authority of act June 25, 1948, ch. 646, 62 Stat. 869, the first section of which enacted Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure.

Amendments

2005—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 109–58 inserted “electric utility,” after “Any person,” and “to which such person,” and substituted “brought by any entity unless such entity” for “brought by any person unless such person”. 1958—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 85–791, § 16(a), inserted sentence to provide that Commission may modify or set aside findings or orders until record has been filed in court of appeals. Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 85–791, § 16(b), in second sentence, substituted “transmitted by the clerk of the court to” for “served upon”, substituted “file with the court” for “certify and file with the court a transcript of”, and inserted “as provided in section 2112 of title 28”, and in third sentence, substituted “jurisdiction, which upon the filing of the record with it shall be exclusive” for “exclusive jurisdiction”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

Act

June 25, 1948, eff. Sept. 1, 1948, as amended by act

May 24, 1949, substituted “court of appeals” for “circuit court of appeals”.

§825l Review of Orders