18
Opinion of the Court
the existence of Federal Government authority. See, e. g., Hillsborough County v. Automated Medical Laboratories, Inc., 471 U. S. 707, 715 (1985) (citing cases); see also Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr, 518 U. S. 470, 485 (1996); Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., 505 U. S. 504, 518 (1992). In such a situation, the Court " 'start[s] with the assumption that the historic police powers of the States were not to be superseded . . . unless that was the clear and manifest purpose of Congress.' " Hillsborough County, 471 U. S., at 715 (quoting Jones v. Rath Packing Co., 430 U. S. 519, 525 (1977)). These are not such cases, however, because the question presented does not concern the validity of a conflicting state law or regulation.
The other context in which "pre-emption" arises concerns the rule "that a federal agency may pre-empt state law only when and if it is acting within the scope of its congressionally delegated authority[,] . . . [for] an agency literally has no power to act, let alone pre-empt the validly enacted legislation of a sovereign State, unless and until Congress confers power upon it." Louisiana Pub. Serv. Comm'n v. FCC, 476 U. S. 355, 374 (1986). This is the sort of case we confront here—defining the proper scope of the federal power. Such a case does not involve a "presumption against pre-emption," as New York argues, but rather requires us to be certain that Congress has conferred authority on the agency. As we have explained, the best way to answer such a question— i. e., whether federal power may be exercised in an area of pre-existing state regulation—"is to examine the nature and scope of the authority granted by Congress to the agency." Ibid. In other words, we must interpret the statute to determine whether Congress has given FERC the power to act as it has, and we do so without any presumption one way or the other.
As noted above, the text of the FPA gives FERC jurisdiction over the "transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce and . . . the sale of electric energy at wholesale in
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