Utility Groups Urge Eighth Circuit to Uphold Ruling against Minnesota’s NGEA

Passed in 2007, in an effort to combat climate change, Minnesota’s Next Generation Energy Act (NGEA) prohibits any new power sources that, after offsetting reductions elsewhere, produce or supply 50 or more MWs and increase carbon dioxide emissions from being added to Minnesota’s energy mix.  Utility groups claim that the law violates the dormant Commerce Clause by extending the state’s regulatory reach into neighboring states.

A Minnesota federal judge ruled the law unconstitutional in April and the utility groups have requested the Eighth Circuit to uphold the lower court’s ruling.  In their brief, the utility groups argue that it is imperative to defend against cross-border regulation in today’s “increasingly interconnected” power markets.  If different states had conflicting regulations affecting the same power plants, regional power markets would be undermined and customers would suffer as utilities would be forced to pass along any increased costs.

The utility groups have accused Minnesota of stretching the law’s interpretation in an attempt to make the law appear more constitutionally friendly by saying the law only applies to Minnesota utilities, but the groups claim the law is unambiguous in its reading and would not feel secure basing its future borrowing decisions or long-term contracts on the concessions made in Minnesota’s brief rather than the plain meaning of the NGEA.  Click here to read more.