40
Opinion of Thomas, J.
retail sale. Tr. of Oral Arg. 42-43. FERC explained that it lacks jurisdiction over the transmission "as long as the State hasn't unbundled [the retail sale], the utility has not unbundled it, and FERC has not exercised whatever authority it would have to unbundle it." Id., at 50 (emphasis added).
FERC's orders present still more views of its jurisdiction. As already noted, when considering whether FERC should unbundle retail transmission and generation, FERC asserts that this particular question "raises numerous difficult jurisdictional issues" more appropriately considered at a later time. Order No. 888, at 31,699. FERC, at other points, however, makes clear its belief that there is a jurisdictional line between unbundled and bundled retail transmission. Explaining its "legal determination" that it has exclusive jurisdiction over unbundled retail transmission in interstate commerce, FERC notes that it found "compelling the fact that section 201 of the FPA, on its face, gives the Commission jurisdiction over transmission in interstate commerce (by public utilities) without qualification." Id., at 31,781. Nonetheless, when addressing why "its authority attaches only to unbundled, but not bundled, retail transmission in interstate commerce," FERC affirmatively states that "we believe that when transmission is sold at retail as part and parcel of the delivered product called electric energy, the transaction is a sale of electric energy at retail" and that "[u]nder the FPA, the Commission's jurisdiction over sales of electric energy extends only to wholesale sales." Ibid.
By contrast, when the "retail transaction is broken into two products that are sold separately," FERC "believe[s] the jurisdictional lines change." Ibid. FERC explains:
"In this situation, the state clearly retains jurisdiction over the sale of the power. However, the unbundled transmission service involves only the provision of 'transmission in interstate commerce' which, under the FPA, is exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Com-
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