Cite as: 535 U. S. 1 (2002)
Opinion of the Court
tions less favorable than those they apply to their own transmissions. E. g., Order No. 888, at 31,643-31,644.6
Congress has addressed these evolving conditions in the electricity market on two primary occasions since 1935. First, Congress enacted the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA), 92 Stat. 3117, 16 U. S. C. § 2601 et seq., to promote the development of new generating facilities and to conserve the use of fossil fuels. Because the traditional utilities controlled the transmission lines and were reluctant to purchase power from "nontraditional facilities," PURPA directed FERC to promulgate rules requiring utilities to purchase electricity from "qualifying cogeneration and small power production facilities." FERC v. Mississippi, 456 U. S. 742, 751 (1982); see 16 U. S. C. § 824a-3(a).
Over a decade later, Congress enacted the Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EPAct), 106 Stat. 2776. This law authorized FERC to order individual utilities to provide transmission services to unaffiliated wholesale generators (i. e., to "wheel" power) on a case-by-case basis. See 16 U. S. C. §§ 824j-824k. Exercising its authority under the EPAct, FERC ordered a utility to "wheel" power for a complaining wholesale competitor 12 times, in 12 separate proceedings. Order No. 888, at 31,646. FERC soon concluded, however, that these individual proceedings were too costly and time consuming to provide an adequate remedy for undue discrimination throughout the market. Ibid.
6 In addition to policing utilities' anticompetitive behavior through the various statutory provisions that explicitly address the electric industry, discussed in more detail below, the Government has also used the antitrust laws to this end. For example, in Otter Tail Power Co. v. United States, 410 U. S. 366 (1973), the Court permitted the Government to seek antitrust remedies against a utility company which, among other things, refused to sell power at wholesale to some municipalities and refused to transfer competitors' power over its lines. Id., at 368. The Court concluded that the FPA's existence did not preclude the applicability of the antitrust laws. Id., at 372.
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