20
Opinion of the Court
rate activities—transmitting and selling. It is true that FERC's jurisdiction over the sale of power has been specifically confined to the wholesale market. However, FERC's jurisdiction over electricity transmissions contains no such limitation. Because the FPA authorizes FERC's jurisdiction over interstate transmissions, without regard to whether the transmissions are sold to a reseller or directly to a consumer, FERC's exercise of this power is valid.
Legislative History
Attempting to discredit this straightforward analysis of the statutory language, New York calls our attention to numerous statements in the legislative history indicating that the 1935 Congress intended to do no more than close the "Attleboro gap," by providing for federal regulation of wholesale, interstate electricity transactions that the Court had held to be beyond the reach of state authority in Attleboro, 273 U. S., at 89. To support this argument, and to demonstrate that the 1935 Congress did not intend to supplant any traditionally state-held jurisdiction, New York points to language added to the FPA in the course of the legislative process that evidences a clear intent to preserve state jurisdiction over local facilities. For example, § 201(a) provides that federal regulation is "to extend only to those matters which are not subject to regulation by the States." 16 U. S. C. § 824(a). And § 201(b) states that FERC has no jurisdiction "over facilities used for the generation of electric energy or over facilities used in local distribution or only for the transmission of electric energy in intrastate commerce, or over facilities for the transmission of electric energy consumed wholly by the transmitter." 16 U. S. C. § 824(b).
It is clear that the enactment of the FPA in 1935 closed the "Attleboro gap" by authorizing federal regulation of interstate, wholesale sales of electricity—the precise subject matter beyond the jurisdiction of the States in Attleboro. And it is true that the above-quoted language from § 201(a) concerning the States' reserved powers is consistent with
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