CONSTITUTIONAL LAW -INTERSTATE COMMERCE -NAVIGABLE WATERS -VALIDITY OF FEDERAL WATER POWER ACT

Authors

Abstract

The Federal Power Commission found that the plaintiff's proposed hydroelectric development on the non-navigable New river in Virginia would affect interstate commerce on the navigable Kanawha river to which the New river was tributary. The Commission thereupon tendered the plaintiff a standard or major form license for the project. Such a license, had it been accepted by the plaintiff, would have subjected it to all the provisions of the Federal Water Power Act of 1920, including those concerning the regulation of rates, issuance of securities, expropriation of excess profits, amortization reserves, and recapture at the end of fifty years on the basis of net investment. The plaintiff refused to accept a license on these terms and brought a bill to remove the cloud upon the title of its real estate created by the Commission's action which was alleged to be unconstitutional. Held, that the Federal Water Power Act was a valid exercise of the power of Congress over navigable streams, and, therefore, the bill should be dismissed. Appalachian Electric Power Co. v. Smith et al., (D. C .. W. D. Va. 1933) 4 F. Supp. 6.

Recommended Citation

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW -INTERSTATE COMMERCE -NAVIGABLE WATERS -VALIDITY OF FEDERAL WATER POWER ACT, 32 Mich. L. Rev. 101 (1933).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol32/iss1/13