Title 16ConservationRelease 119-73not60

§825l Review of Orders

Title 16 › Chapter 12— FEDERAL REGULATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF POWER › Subchapter III— LICENSEES AND PUBLIC UTILITIES; PROCEDURAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS › § 825l

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

People, electric utilities, States, municipalities, or State commissions who disagree with a Commission order can ask the Commission to rehear the case. They must file that request within 30 days of the order and say the exact reasons why. The Commission can grant, deny, change, or cancel its order without another hearing. If the Commission does not act within 30 days after the request is filed, the request may be treated as denied. You cannot go to court to review the order unless you first asked the Commission for rehearing. Before the court record is filed, the Commission may also change or cancel any finding or order at any time with reasonable notice. Any party unhappy after the Commission rules on rehearing can ask a U.S. court of appeals to review the order. The petition must be filed in the proper circuit (where the licensee or utility is located) or in the D.C. Circuit within 60 days after the Commission’s decision on rehearing. The court clerk sends a copy to the Commission, and the Commission must file the record with the court as required by section 2112 of Title 28. The court will only consider issues raised in the rehearing unless there was a good reason they were not raised before. The Commission’s factual findings supported by substantial evidence are final. If a party wants to add new evidence, the court can allow it to be taken before the Commission if the party shows it is important and there was a good reason it was not given earlier; the Commission can then update its findings. The court’s decision is final except for possible Supreme Court review under section 1254 of Title 28. Filing for rehearing or starting court review does not stop the Commission’s order unless the Commission or the court specifically orders a stay.

Full Legal Text

Title 16, §825l

Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)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)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)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.

Legislative History

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”.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

16 U.S.C. § 825l

Title 16Conservation

Last Updated

Apr 5, 2026

Release point: 119-73not60