Governors' Wind Energy Coalition

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear LS Power’s challenge to a 2012 Minnesota law giving transmission companies with a presence in the state a “right of first refusal” to build electric lines in their service areas, a law passed in the wake of FERC’s Order 1000 to facilitate new transmission to link regions across the U.S. LSP argued that the law shielded incumbent companies “from competition with out-of-state developers for regionally approved transmission projects for the interstate grid.” But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit last year upheld the Minnesota law after concluding that it didn’t discriminate against out-of-state entities. The Supreme Court on Monday declined to second-guess that ruling. The case was LSP Transmission Holdings v. Katie Sieben, 20-641.