New York ex rel. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judge:

Enactment of the Federal Power Act in 1920 was the end result of a bitter fight in Congress between private power interests and public conservationists. See Gifford Pinchot, The Long Struggle For Effective Federal Water Power Legislation, 14 Geo. Wash.L.Rev. 9 (1945); see also First Iowa Hydro-Electric Coop. v. FPC, 328 U.S. 152, 180 & n. 23, 66 S.Ct. 906, 919 & n. 23, 90 L.Ed. 1143 (1946). Since that time, federal jurisdiction under the Act has been expanded substantially, due in large measure to broadening of the concept of “navigable waters” as that term is…