Perspective

Deck: 
How the filed-rate policy wreaks havoc- and what courts can do about it.
Fortnightly Magazine - November 2004
This full article is only accessible by current license holders. Please login to view the full content.
Don't have a license yet? Click here to sign up for Public Utilities Fortnightly, and gain access to the entire Fortnightly article database online.

Perspective

How the filed-rate policy wreaks havoc- and what courts can do about it.

Like many venerable legal rules, the filed-rate doctrine is rarely questioned. Over the last century, it has served many important purposes. However, with deregulated wholesale electric power markets at the federal level and various degrees of deregulation across the states, both the doctrine's continued applicability and usefulness are suspect.

As recent examples in the industry suggest, presumptive application of the filed-rate doctrine by both firms and courts can cause affirmative harm for energy-market development and policy. For example, a recent U.S. District Court decision in Texas applied the filed-rate doctrine in an astonishingly broad manner (), precluding anti-trust claims against energy suppliers in the deregulated Texas wholesale power market and leaving those harmed by market abuses without any legal or administrative remedy.

Examples such as this one illustrate a serious need for reassessment of the doctrine by federal courts in the energy context. Both courts and litigators have at their disposal ways of lowering the filed-tariff shield to allow more efficient energy markets to develop, better furthering the goals of energy policy.

In the deregulated electric power industry, the filed-rate doctrine continues to play an important role in precluding judicial enforcement of antitrust, contract, and tort laws.

This full article is only accessible by current license holders. Please login to view the full content.
Don't have a license yet? Click here to sign up for Public Utilities Fortnightly, and gain access to the entire Fortnightly article database online.