The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that federal antitrust laws provide no remedy for complaints by a qualifying cogeneration facility that an electric utility was impermissibly curtailing purchases under its power purchase contract with the QF.
It said that Pennsylvania's recently enacted electric restructuring law "comes too late" to make the QF's complaint a valid one.
Schuylkill Energy Resources Inc., owner and operator of an anthracite coal refuse-fired QF in Shenandoah, Pa., had filed an antitrust claim against Pennsylvania Power and Light Co. in federal court. Schuylkill alleged the utility was trying to monopolize the provision of electric energy to retail consumers in the utility's service territory and to wholesale resellers affiliated with PP&L. (The appeals court affirmed a district court ruling that dismissed the case for failure to state a claim.)