## Facts

- The City of Girard, Kansas operated as a municipal electric system that both generated electricity and purchased wholesale power from Kansas Gas & Electric Company (KG&E) for resale at retail.
- Girard historically bought only part of its needs from KG&E under a partial-requirements arrangement, at a filed wholesale rate higher than the rate KG&E charged full-requirements customers.
- Girard’s own generation ceased, making it dependent on KG&E for all of its power, and Girard sought the lower full-requirements rate.
- The existing Girard–KG&E contract, reflecting partial-requirements pricing, expired on July 31, 1983; KG&E continued billing Girard at the partial-requirements rate while the parties negotiated.
- KG&E filed a new rate schedule with FERC under Federal Power Act (FPA) § 205 to reflect Girard’s changed status.
- Girard intervened before FERC and requested that any approved rate be applied retroactively to August 1, 1983, and that FERC waive the full 60-day notice period in FPA § 205(d).
- FERC approved the new rate schedule prospectively and denied Girard’s request for retroactive effectiveness and full waiver of the notice period.

## Issues

1. Whether the filed-rate doctrine and the FPA permit (or require) FERC to give retroactive effect to a newly filed wholesale rate so Girard could receive the lower rate for service provided before the approved effective date.
2. Whether Girard showed “good cause” under FPA § 205(d) to require FERC to waive the entire 60-day notice period for the new rate filing.

## Decision

- The court denied Girard’s petition for review and left FERC’s order in place.
- The court held Girard had no entitlement to a retroactive effective date for KG&E’s new rate under the filed-rate doctrine.
- The court held FERC did not abuse its discretion in refusing to waive the entire 60-day notice period because Girard failed to show “good cause.”

## Legal Principles

- Under the filed-rate doctrine in the FPA setting, the lawfully filed and effective rate governs service provided during the relevant period, and neither FERC nor a reviewing court may retroactively reprice past service absent statutory authorization.
- Rate changes under FPA § 205 generally operate prospectively after proper filing and the statutory notice period; attempts to substitute a later-filed rate for an earlier effective rate amount to prohibited retroactive ratemaking.
- The FPA provides distinct mechanisms for rate regulation: § 205 governs utility-initiated rate changes by filing, while § 206 addresses Commission-initiated or complaint-driven challenges to existing rates and is oriented toward prospective relief.
- The 60-day notice requirement in FPA § 205(d) is the default rule; waiver is discretionary and requires “good cause,” which is not established merely by a customer’s desire to avoid higher charges during negotiations after contract expiration.

## Conclusion

The D.C. Circuit upheld FERC’s refusal to backdate KG&E’s new wholesale rate for Girard and affirmed that the filed-rate doctrine and the FPA’s notice-and-filing scheme bar retroactive rate relief, while waiver of the § 205(d) notice period requires a concrete showing of good cause.


City of Girard v. Federal Energy Regulatory Comm’n, 790 F.2d 919 (D.C. Cir. 1986)