NRECA and the American Public Power Association (APPA) jointly filed an amicus brief in a Supreme Court case raising questions about how courts balance rate-payer protections and contractual obligations.

This case involves a challenge to a contract by a person who was not a party to the contract; the contract was subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) jurisdiction. In its filing, NRECA asserts that such a contract does not render void the “just and reasonable” rate protections guaranteed to non-parties by statute.

According to NRECA counsel Rich Meyer, “we took a narrow, surgical approach in this filing, which is intended to protect rates charged to NRECA’s consumer-owned cooperatives without harming the sanctity of contracts. We want to ensure that consumers do not lose their Congressionally-assured protection of just and reasonable rates merely because private parties to a contract have provided otherwise."