16 U.S.C. § 824 — Declaration of policy; application of subchapter

(a) Transmitting and selling electricity for ultimate public distribution affects the public interest. Federal regulation of generation to the extent covered by this subchapter and subchapter III, interstate transmission, and interstate wholesale sales is necessary in the public interest, but federal regulation reaches only matters not subject to State regulation.

(b)(1) This subchapter applies to interstate transmission and interstate wholesale sales. Except as paragraph (2) provides, it does not apply to other sales or remove a State’s lawful authority over hydroelectric energy exported across a State line. The Commission has jurisdiction over facilities for such transmission or sales, but generally not over generation facilities, local-distribution facilities, facilities used only for intrastate transmission, or facilities transmitting electricity consumed entirely by the transmitter, except as this subchapter and subchapter III specifically provide. (2) The listed provisions—sections 824b(a)(2), 824e(e), 824i, 824j, 824j-1, 824k, 824o, 824o-1, and 824p through 824v—apply to the entities they describe. Those entities are under Commission jurisdiction to carry out and enforce those provisions only. Compliance does not place them under Commission jurisdiction for other purposes.

(c) Electricity is transmitted in interstate commerce when it is sent from one State and consumed outside that State, but only for transmission within the United States.

(d) “Sale of electric energy at wholesale” means a sale of electricity to anyone for resale.

(e) “Public utility” means a person owning or operating facilities under Commission jurisdiction under this subchapter or subchapter III, except facilities under jurisdiction only because of the provisions listed in subsection (b)(2).

(f) This subchapter does not apply to or include the United States, a State, or a political subdivision of a State; an electric cooperative^* that receives financing under the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 (7 U.S.C. 901 and following) or sells less than 4,000,000 megawatt hours of electricity per year; any agency, authority, or instrumentality of any of these; any corporation wholly owned, directly or indirectly, by one or more of them; or any officer, agent, or employee of one of them acting in an official capacity, unless the provision specifically refers to them.

(g)(1) On a State commission’s written order, it may examine the books, accounts, memoranda, contracts, and records of an electric utility^* it regulates; an exempt wholesale generator selling wholesale power to it; and an electric utility or holding company that is an associate company or affiliate of such a generator, wherever located, when needed for the State commission’s effective regulation of electric service. (2) The State commission may not publicly disclose trade secrets or sensitive commercial information. (3) A United States district court in that State may enforce compliance. (4) This section does not preempt State records law or limit rights to obtain information under federal law, contracts, or otherwise. (5) “Affiliate,” “associate company,” “electric utility company,” “holding company,” “subsidiary company,” and “exempt wholesale generator” have the meanings they have in the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2005.