Full opinion text
Opinion for the Court filed PER CURIAM. PER CURIAM: The Midwest Independent System Operator, known as MISO, is a nonprofit corporation that controls the transmission of electricity over a grid spanning 15 Mid-western states. Its original tariff was approved by-the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and went into effect in 2002. Under that tariffs terms, MISO approved transmission requests, scheduled service, monitored the grid to manage congestion, and provided various ancillary services to support the regional electricity market. On March 24, 2004, MISO filed a revised tariff with FERC. Under the new tariff, MISO administers two competitive wholesale power markets: a “day-ahead” market that allows transmission to be scheduled in advance, and a real-time or “spot” market. Among other improvements over MISO’s original operations, these markets incorporate more sophisticated pricing and congestion-management mechanisms that increase the efficiency and reliability of the transmission grid. In a series of orders issued between May 2004 and September 2005, the Commission accepted the proposed tariff with modifications, and MISO’s new market began operating on April 1, 2005. Three groups of petitioners now seek review of various aspects of the Commission’s orders: the Transmission Dependent Utilities, who rely on MISO’s transmission system and markets to buy and sell electric power to retail customers; the Transmission Owners, who are electricity sellers in MISO’s markets subject to the new tariffs rules and liabilities; and the Cooperatives, who are electricity buyers under contracts predating the establishment of MISO. For the reasons that follow, we deny the petitions of the Transmission Dependents and the Transmission Owners, and we dismiss those of the Cooperatives for lack of standing. I Section 201(b) of the Federal Power Act (FPA) grants the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission exclusive jurisdiction over the transmission and wholesale salé of electricity in interstate commerce. See 16 U.S.C. § 824(b). Section 205 of the FPA provides that “[a]ll rates and charges made, demanded, or received by any public utility for or in connection with the transmission or sale of electric energy subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission ... shall be just and reasonable, and any such rate or charge that is not just and reasonable is hereby declared to be unlawful.” Id. § 824d(a). Section 205 also prohibits undue discrimination in rates, charges, or terms of service. See id. § 824d(b). To enforce these requirements, Section 205 requires that utilities file tariffs reflecting their rates and service terms with the Commission, which must in turn ensure that those rates and terms are just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory. Id. § 824d(c). A In the mid-1990s, FERC determined that longstanding structural barriers to competition in the wholesale power market constituted undue discrimination. Since then, it has been the Commission’s policy to eliminate those barriers and promote competition. This policy required a significant shift in the Commission’s regulatory approach, which has in turn produced dramatic changes in the electricity • industry. Because the tariff at issue in these petitions is part of that transformation, we begin with some background on the development of FERC’s policy. Rather than reinventing the wheel, we borrow the following account from our opinion in Midwest ISO Transmission Owners v. FERC: In the bad old days, utilities were vertically integrated monopolies; electricity generation, transmission, and distribution for a particular geographic area were generally provided by and under the control of a single regulated utility. Sales of those services were “bundled,” meaning consumers paid a single price for generation, transmission, and distribution. As the Supreme Court observed, with blithe understatement, “[c]ompetition among utilities was not prevalent.” New York v. FERC, 535 U.S. 1, 5, 122 S.Ct. 1012, 152 L.Ed.2d 47 (2002). In its pathmarking Order No. 888, FERC required utilities that owned transmission facilities to guarantee all market participants non-discriminatory access to those facilities. See Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Non-Discriminatory Transmission Services by Public Utilities, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,036, 31,-635-36 (1996) (Order No. 888). That is, FERC required all transmission-owning utilities to provide transmission service for electricity generated by others on the same basis that they provided transmission service for the electricity they themselves generated. To effectuate this introduction of competition, FERC required public utilities to “functionally unbundle” their wholesale generation and transmission services by stating separate rates for each service in a single tariff and offering transmission service under that tariff on an open-access, non-discriminatory basis. See New York, 535 U.S. at 11, 122 S.Ct. 1012; see generally California Indep. Sys. Operator Corp. v. FERC, 372 F.3d 395, 397 (D.C.Cir.2004). As the next step toward the goal of a more competitive electricity marketplace, Order No. 888 encouraged — but did not require — the development of multi-utility regional transmission organizations (RTOs). The concern was that the segmentation of the transmission grid among different utilities, even if each had functionally unbundled transmission, contributed to inefficiencies that impeded free competition in the market for electric power. Combining the different segments and placing control of the grid in one entity — an RTO — was expected to overcome these inefficiencies and promote competition. Order No. 888 at 31,730-32; see also Public Util. Dist. No. 1 of Snohomish County v. FERC, 272 F.3d 607, 610-11 (D.C.Cir. 2001). Better still if the RTO were run by an independent system operator — an ISO. As envisioned by FERC, an ISO would assume operational control — but not ownership — of the transmission facilities owned by its member utilities, thereby “separating] operation of the transmission grid and access to it from economic interests in generation.” Order No. 888 at 31,654; see also id. at 31,730-32. The ISO would then provide open access to the regional transmission system to all electricity generators at rates established in “a single, unbundled, grid-wide tariff that applies to all eligible users in a non-discriminatory manner.” Id. at 31,731; see also California Indep. Sys. Operator Corp., 372 F.3d at 397. FERC called this type of separation of generation and transmission “operational unbundling,” a step beyond “functional unbundling.” Order No. 888 at 31,654. Although several parties to the 1996 rulemaking had requested that FERC require “operational unbundling” or even divestiture of transmission assets, it was FERC’s considered judgment that “the less intrusive functional unbundling approach ... is all that we must require at this time.” Id. at 31,655. By 1999, FERC had come to a less sanguine view of the curative powers of functional unbundling. In FERC’s view, inefficiencies in the transmission grid and lingering opportunities for transmission owners to discriminate in their own favor remained obstacles to robust competition in the wholesale electricity market. FERC concluded that these problems could be remedied through the establishment of RTOs, explaining that “better regional coordination in areas such as maintenance of transmission and generation systems and transmission planning and operation” was necessary to address regional reliability concerns and to foster regional competition. See Regional Transmission Organizations, Order No. 2000, FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,089, 30,999 (1999) (Order No. 2000) (codified at 18 C.F.R. § 35.34) (citing Staff Report to FERC on the Causes of Wholesale Electric Pricing Abnormalities in the Midwest During June 1998, at 5-8 (Sept. 22, 1998)). FERC concluded that RTOs would: “(1) improve efficiencies in transmission grid management; (2) impose grid reliability; (3) remove remaining opportunities for discriminatory transmission practices; (4) improve market performance; and (5) facilitate lighter handed regulation.” Order No. 2000 at 30,993; Public Util. Dist. No. 1, 272 F.3d at 611. To further encourage RTO development, FERC directed transmission-owning utilities either to participate in an RTO or to explain their refusal to do so. Public Util. Dist. No. 1, 272 F.3d at 612. Importantly, though, Order No. 2000 still did not require utilities to join RTOs; participation remained voluntary. See id. at 616. For those utilities opting to join an RTO, Order No. 2000 retained a flexible approach, allowing the RTOs to employ a variety of ownership and operational structures, so long as the RTO established that it had certain required characteristics and functional capabilities. Id. at 611. FERC required, inter alia, that an RTO be regional in scope, 18 C.F.R. § 35.34(j)(2); “have operational authority for all transmission facilities under its control,” id. § 35.34(j)(3); “be the only provider of transmission service over the facilities under its control,” id. § 35.34(k)(l)(i); and “have the sole authority to receive, evaluate, and approve or deny all requests for transmission service,” id. Thus, whatever its structure, once a utility made the decision to surrender operational control of its transmission facilities to an RTO, any transmissions across those facilities were subject to the control of that RTO. 373 F.3d 1361, 1363-65 (D.C.Cir.2004) (alterations in original). B MISO developed in response to Order No. 888 and Order No. 2000. On January 15, 1998, pursuant to Order No. 888, a group of Midwestern transmission owners sought FERC’s approval of their agreement establishing an Independent System Operator. See Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., 84 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,231, at 62,139 (1998) (“MISO Formation Order”). Under the MISO Agreement, “[t]he participating transmission owners ... transferred] to the Midwest ISO functional control over all network transmission facilities” above a specified voltage. Id. The transmission owners retained ownership and physical control over the facilities, but operated them according to MISO’s instructions. MISO, in turn, was “authorized to provide non-discriminatory open access transmission service,” “to receive and distribute transmission revenues” to the transmission owners, and “to be responsible for regional system security.” Id.; see also E. Ky. Power Coop., Inc. v. FERC, 489 F.3d 1299, 1303 (D.C.Cir.2007) (“MISO was responsible for functional control over the transmission system, which included managing transmission availability and capacity, requests for transmission service, available ancillary services, and security.”). Along with the MISO Agreement, the transmission owners also filed an Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT), which established the terms and rates of transmission service on the MISO grid. Under the proposed OATT, “all customers would pay a single rate to use the entire MISO transmission system, based on the volume of power the customer carried on the system.” Midwest ISO Transmission Owners, 373 F.3d at 1365. FERC conditionally approved the MISO Agreement and the OATT on September 16, 1998, but suspended the tariff pending a hearing to determine whether its terms were just and reasonable. See MISO Formation Order, 84 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,231, at 62,-181-82. While these proceedings were still ongoing, FERC issued Order No. 2000, which directed all FERC-approved ISOs to show that they had met the requirements for RTO status. See 18 C.F.R. § 35.34(h). When MISO made the required filing, the Commission found that it had satisfied Order No. 2000’s requirements and granted it RTO status. See Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., 97 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,326, at 62,500 (2001) (“RTO Formation Order”). The Commission also approved the OATT, and MISO began providing transmission service on February 1, 2002. See Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., 97 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,033, at 61,177 (2001) (“Opinion No. 453”), order on reh’g, 98 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,141 (2002) (“Opinion No. 453-A”). MISO’s development was complicated by the existence of several hundred pre-exist-ing bilateral contracts between its transmission owners and other utilities. Midwest ISO Transmission Owners, 373 F.3d at 1365. These long-term contracts, known as grandfathered agreements (GFAs), obligated the transmission owners to provide transmission service under terms and rates that were inconsistent with the OATT. See id. In order to balance the contract rights and expectations of the parties to the GFAs with the benefits of open-access service provided by an ISO, the MISO transmission owners “proposed to not place ... grandfathered wholesale load under the Midwest ISO’s Tariff for at least a six year transition period.” Opinion No. 453, 97 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,033, at 61,169. In other words, under the original version of the MISO Agreement, two different types of transmission service would have coexisted on the MISO grid: independent service provided by the transmission owners under the terms of their bilateral GFAs, and open-access service provided by MISO under the terms of the OATT. FERC accepted this proposed treatment of the GFAs when it initially approved the formation of the Midwest ISO, but had to revisit the issue in light of Order No. 2000. As the Commission explained, “Order No. 2000 and Section 35.34(k) of the Commission regulations require that an RTO be the only provider of transmission services over the facilities under its control.” Opinion No. 453, 97 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,033, at 61,170 (citing 18 C.F.R. § 35.34(k)). The proposed MISO Agreement and OATT did not satisfy this requirement because they allowed transmission owners to provide independent transmission service to fulfill their obligations under the GFAs. FERC therefore directed that, “to the extent that certain transmission-owning members of the Midwest ISO serve ... grandfathered load, those transmission-owning members will have to take transmission service under the Midwest ISO Tariff for their use of the Midwest ISO transmission system to serve ... grandfathered agreement customers.” Opinion No. 453-A, 98 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,141, at 61,413. MISO complied. Under the revised MISO Agreement, a transmission owner providing service under a GFA took service from MISO under the terms of the OATT and then re-sold the same service to the GFA customer (this is known as providing “back-to-back” transmission service). Order No. 2000 demanded this formal integration of the GFAs into MISO, but in financial terms the transmission owners— with FERC’s approval — preserved the separate status of the GFAs. The final version of-the OATT provided that MISO transmission owners “will be exempt, during the [six-year] transition period, from rates under the Midwest ISO Tariff for services provided pursuant to the existing [GFA] agreements.” Id. Thus, although the transmission owners took service under the OATT when serving GFAs, they did not pay MISO for that service — finan-dally, grandfathered load was effectively kept outside of the OATT. C Under MISO’s original OATT, MISO managed transmission congestion primarily through the Transmission Line Loading Relief procedure (TLR). The TLR procedure required MISO to monitor real-time power flows and to order the physical curtailment of any transactions that threatened to exceed the system’s transmission capacity. See Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,236, at 62,279 PP 27-30 (2004) (“GFA Order”). This system of congestion management was highly inefficient. “[R]eliance on TLRs for congestion management inherently leaves transmission capacity under-utilized because the TLR approach relies on imprecise flow estimates” and because “each TLR curtailment ... may curtail too many or too few transactions.” Id. at 62,279 P 30. The uncertainty of the TLR process also undermined the reliability of the grid because it made it “more difficult to maintain power flows within operating security limits.” Id. at 62,280 P 32. FERC recognized these shortcomings in the OATT, and it granted MISO’s request for RTO status on the condition that MISO begin planning a transition to more “dynamic” operations, including more efficient market-based congestion management. RTO Formation Order, 97 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,326, at 62,512, 62,522. On March 31, 2004, MISO filed a revised Open Access Transmission and Energy Markets Tariff (Tariff) that is the subject of these petitions for review. The Tariff provides for a “security-eonstrained, centralized bid-based scheduling and dispatch system” similar to those currently operating in three other RTOs. See Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,163, at 61,916-17 PP 2-6 (2004) (“TEMT II Order”). In these systems, the ISO “administers two sets of bid-based energy markets. First is the ‘Day-Ahead Market,’ in which the [ISO] derives a market-clearing price from the sellers’ and buyers’ price and quantity indications for the next day; sales are then made at the market-clearing price. Second is the ‘Real-Time Market,’ designed to ensure system reliability by calculating hourly clearing prices and allowing sellers to offer supplies to meet additional demand and even to revise day-ahead bids.” Edison Mission Energy, Inc. v. FERC, 394 F.3d 964, 965 (D.C.Cir. 2005). As directed by FERC, the Tariff includes a market-based approach to congestion management. The Tariff establishes markets based on a mechanism known as locational marginal pricing (LMP), which incorporates the cost of congestion into the price of energy. Under the LMP system, MISO takes into account the limits on available transmission capacity when determining the price of energy at each node in its transmission grid. This results in higher energy prices at nodes that require the use of congested transmission lines and lower prices in less congested areas. See Prepared Direct Testimony of Dr. Ronald R. McNamara 33. LMP reduces the need for inefficient TLRs by giving market participants incentives to avoid congestion-causing transactions. See id. It is also more economically efficient: scarce transmission capacity is allocated to those who value it most instead of being physically rationed by TLRs. See id. at 35. In order to protect market participants from variations in congestion costs, the Tariff provides for a system of Financial Transmission Rights (FTRs), which are financial instruments that entitle their holders to be paid the congestion costs associated with transmitting a given quantity of electricity between two specified points. See TEMT II Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,163, at 61,935-36 P 139. A party planning a transmission can thus hedge its exposure to congestion costs by acquiring a corresponding FTR. At the time of the transmission, the party will pay MISO the applicable congestion costs, but will then receive the same amount back from MISO in its capacity as the holder of the FTR. MISO proposed annual allocations of FTRs to existing users of the transmission, grid, supplemented by periodic adjustments and secondary auctions. See id. Two additional features of the Tariff are relevant to the petitions before us: market power mitigation measures and marginal loss refunds. First, MISO recognized that, during periods of transmission congestion and high demand, sellers might be able to exercise, market power and drive prices in MISO’s markets to unreasonable levels. The Tariff therefore provides for two types of market power mitigation: one for Narrow Constrained Areas (NCAs) and one for Broad Constrained Areas (BCAs). NCAs are determined annually and are defined as areas where transmission constraints are expected to be binding for at least 500 hours during a given year and where at least one seller is “pivotal.” See id. at 61,955 P 276. “A supplier is pivotal when the output of some of its generation resources must be changed to resolve the transmission constraint during some or all hours when the constraint is binding.” Id. BCAs are areas where competitive conditions are generally present but where transmission constraints may create occasional opportunities for the exercise of market power. BCAs are defined dynamically: when a transmission constraint becomes active, MISO’s independent market monitor defines those generators that affect the constraint as being within the BCA. See id. at 61,953 PP 264-65. The consequence of being within an NCA or BCA is that a generator’s bids are subject to mitigation if they exceed “conduct” and “impact” thresholds. These thresholds are defined in relation to the seller’s “reference level,” which is based on an estimate of its marginal cost. In BCAs, the “conduct” threshold is equal to either $100 per megawatt hour above the seller’s reference level or 300 percent above the reference level, whichever is less. See id. at 61,959 PP 307-12. If a seller’s bid fails the conduct test, then it is subject to the impact test. A bid fails the BCA impact test if it causes the market-clearing price to increase by either $100 per megawatt-hour or 200 percent above the price that would have resulted if the seller had bid its reference level. See id. If a seller’s bid fails both the conduct and impact tests, then it is “mitigated” — that is, it is reduced to the reference level. FERC approved MISO’s BCA mitigation measures, but imposed a “sunset” provision requiring that they terminate after one year unless MISO filed for an extension. See id. at 61,954-55 P 275. Because of the greater risk of market power in NCAs, the conduct and impact thresholds are lower than in BCAs. In NCAs, both thresholds are the same: the seller’s reference price plus a “fixed cost adder” equal to the “net annual fixed cost divided by the constrained hours” expected that year. Id. at 61,959 PP 307-12. Net annual fixed cost is defined as “the fixed cost of a new peaking generator minus revenue from applicable resource reserve adequacy payments.” Id. at 61,959 n. 209. The purpose of the fixed-cost adder is to preserve incentives for suppliers to enter the market (and to discourage existing suppliers from exiting) by ensuring that market revenues cover a generator’s fixed costs. See id. at 61,960 PP 316-17. FERC approved MISO’s NCA mitigation measures without imposing a sunset provision. The second relevant feature of the Tariff is its marginal loss refund mechanism. In addition to accounting for congestion costs, the Tariffs LMP mechanism includes a component for transmission losses. When electricity is transmitted across power lines, some portion of the energy is lost as heat. The loss is a function of (among other things) the length of the transmission and the square of the amount of current being transmitted. See Sithe/Independence Power Partners, L.P. v. FERC, 285 F.3d 1, 2 (D.C.Cir.2002). Under the OATT, transmission losses within MISO were determined on an average system-wide basis and allocated to all users pro rata. This system did not account for the length of the transmission required for each transaction, and thus led to “cross-subsidies” between market participants— parties that scheduled long-distance transmissions paid too little, while those that scheduled shorter transmissions paid too much. See TEMT II Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,163, at 61,925-26 PP 66, 71. Therefore, FERC instructed MISO to adopt “marginal loss pricing.” Id. at 61,925 P 66. Marginal loss pricing recovers transmission losses on a transaction-by-transaction basis by incorporating them into the LMP. In order to do so, however, it treats every transmission as if it were the last (marginal) transmission on the system. This pricing scheme sends more efficient signals to market participants, but because transmission losses increase with the amount of current in the system, treating every transmission as the marginal transmission produces revenue in excess of actual losses — the “marginal loss surplus.” In order to provide transitional protection for market participants who faced higher costs as a result of the new marginal loss system, FERC required MISO to use this surplus to “refund the difference between the marginal loss charge and either an average loss or a historical loss charge to all existing transmission customers” for the first five years of the Tariff. Id. at 61,926 PP 73-74. MISO proposed, and FERC approved, a refund mechanism that distributes marginal loss surpluses through groups of market participants known as “Balancing Authority Areas.” See Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., 109 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,285, at 62,364 P 160 (2004) (“Compliance Order I”). The surpluses are distributed pro rata within each Area, but “customers in Balancing Authority Areas that have the highest actual losses ... receive a greater proportion of the Marginal Loss Surplus share than customers in Balancing Authority Areas with relatively lower losses.” Id. D The Commission approved the Tariff in two parallel proceedings. In the first set of orders, FERC considered the justness and reasonableness of the terms of the Tariff, including the features described above. These orders accepted the Tariff with some modifications and subject to ongoing compliance filings. See TEMT II Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,163, order on reh’g, 109 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,157 (2004) (“TEMT II Reh’g Order”), order on reh’g, 111 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,043 (2005) (“Compliance Order III”), reh’g denied, 112 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,086 (2005) (“Compliance Order V”). In the second set of orders, the Commission considered the relationship between MISO’s new markets and the GFAs, which — as during the formation of MISO — posed special difficulties. In the original MISO Agreement, the transmission owners agreed to. preserve the rates and terms of the GFA contracts for at least a six-year transition period. But under the Tariff, with its system of markets and centralized dispatch, the GFA parties could only “exercise the scheduling and energy management provisions of their GFAs in the same manner they did before” if MISO reserved or “carved out” transmission capacity from its day-ahead market to allow for the possibility that it would be used by the GFA transactions. GFA Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,236, at 62,-289 P 90. In its initial filing, MISO estimated that GFAs accounted for up to 40 percent of the total load on its transmission grid. Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., 107 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,191, at 61,776 P 16 (2004) (“Procedural Order”). MISO argued that carving out such a large fraction of its transmission capacity would significantly reduce the efficiency of the new markets, jeopardize reliability, and impose significant costs on other market participants. See id. at 61,777 P 17. Therefore, MISO proposed that those GFA parties that did not voluntarily agree to convert to service under the Tariff be required to choose one of three options for scheduling their transactions and settling transmission charges. All three options proposed by MISO required the GFA parties to designate a GFA Responsible Entity (GFA-RE), which would be financially responsible for charges under the Tariff, and a GFA Scheduling Entity (GFA-SE), which would submit schedules for GFA transactions to MISO. See id. at 61,777 P 19 & nn. 23-24. Under Option A, the GFA-RE would pay congestion charges and loss charges under the Tariff and would also be eligible for FTR. allocations, just like any other market participant., See id. at 61,777-78 P 20. Under Option B, as under Option A, the GFA-RE would pay congestion and loss charges. But instead of being required to obtain FTRs to hedge congestion costs like other market participants, these GFA-REs would receive a guaranteed reimbursement of congestion costs and loss charges as long as their GFA-SEs provided MISO with a day-ahead schedule of GFA transmissions. See id. at 61,778 P 21. Finally, under Option C, the GFA-RE would pay congestion costs and marginal loss charges but would not be eligible for refunds or FTRs. See id. at 61,778 P 22. The Commission responded to MISO’s proposal by instituting a three-step process to gather additional information about the GFAs and their impact on the new markets. Step one, the “paper hearing,” required utilities to provide information about their GFA contracts and sought additional information from MISO on the impact of a “carve out” of GFA load on the efficiency and reliability of the new markets. See id. at 61,785-86 P 68. Step two was a “trial-type” hearing before two administrative law judges to settle any disputes between GFA parties about the information sought in step one. See id. at 61,787 P 75; see also Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 63,013 (2004) (“ALJ Findings”). Finally, in step three the Commission issued an order on the merits of MISO’s proposal. See Procedural Order, 107 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,191, at 61,787 P 78. FERC also encouraged GFA parties to avoid the time and expense of the three-step process by voluntarily agreeing to convert to Tariff service or selecting one of MISO’s proposed options. Id. at 61,787 P 77. The Commission issued its order on the merits on September 16, 2004. See GFA Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,236, order on reh’g, 111 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,042 (2005) (“GFA Reh’g Order”), order on reh’g, 112 F.E.R.C. ¶61,311 (2005). Based on the paper hearing and the ALJ findings, FERC determined that MISO’s initial estimate of the scope of the problem had been somewhat exaggerated. A total of 229 GFAs would be in existence when the Tariff went into effect, representing 23 percent of MISO’s total load rather than 40 percent. See id. at 62,275 P 4. Furthermore, 52 of those GFAs — representing nine percent of MISO’s total load — had voluntarily settled before the Commission issued its order on the merits. See id.; see also id. at 62,318 P 275. The largest group, representing roughly five percent of MISO’s total load, selected Option B. See id. at 62,318 P 275. The Commission concluded that carving out the relatively small number of remaining GFAs would not threaten the reliability of MISO’s grid or seriously compromise the efficiency of its markets. See id. at 62,288-91 PP 89-102. FERC also explained that, if the GFAs were not carved out, the result would “impose changes to the manner in which transmission service is provided for transactions under the GFAs” and could alter the original bargain between the GFA parties by shifting costs between them. Id. at 62,296-97 P 138. The Commission agreed with MISO, however, that any carve out for GFAs “has the potential to result in additional costs for non-GFA transactions.” Id. at 62,290 P 99. In order to balance these competing considerations, the Commission determined that the treatment of non-settling GFAs should depend on the standard of review in each GFA contract. FPA section 205 allows utilities to file changes to their rates at any time and requires FERC to approve them as long as the new rates are “just and reasonable.” 16 U.S.C. § 824d(d), (e). “Under the Supreme Court’s Mobile-Sierra doctrine,” however, “parties may negotiate a fixed-rate contract with a provision relinquishing their right to file for a unilateral change in rates.” Atl. City Elec. Co. v. FERC, 295 F.3d 1, 11 (D.C.Cir.2002); see also FPC v. Sierra Pac. Power Co., 350 U.S. 348, 76 S.Ct. 368, 100 L.Ed. 388 (1956); United Gas Pipe Line Co. v. Mobile Gas Serv. Corp., 350 U.S. 332, 76 S.Ct. 373, 100 L.Ed. 373 (1956). If the parties to a contract adopt the Mobile-Sierra standard of review, “FERC may abrogate or modify” the contract “only if required by the public interest.” Atl. City Elec., 295 F.3d at 14. This standard “is much more restrictive than the just and reasonable standard of section 205.” Id. FERC concluded that all non-settling GFA contracts that were subject to unilateral modification under the “just and reasonable” standard should be required to “choose between the scheduling and settlement provisions of Option A or Option C.” GFA Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,236, at 62,-297 P 139. The Commission explained that the risk of imposing additional costs on non-GFA parties made it “unjust and unreasonable to allow GFAs that are subject to a just and reasonable standard of review to remain outside the Midwest ISO Energy Markets.” Id. at 62,296 P 137. The risk of unfair cost shifts between the GFA parties was reduced, moreover, because “the terms and conditions of GFAs subject to a just and reasonable standard of review allow the parties to propose appropriate modifications to reflect such new costs.” Id. at 62,297 P 138. These “just and reasonable” GFAs accounted for another 4.5 percent of total MISO load. By contrast, the Commission directed MISO to “carve [the Mobile-Sierra] GFAs out of the Energy Markets for the remainder of the six-year transition period.” Id. at 62,297 P 143. The Commission explained that it “cannot find today that the public interest requires that [the Mobile-Sierra ] GFAs be modified” in the same manner as the just-and-reasonable GFAs because the new energy markets “can be operated reliably, with net benefits to the public, notwithstanding a carve-out” of these GFAs. Id. at 62,297 P 142. FERC also explained that a carve out of the Mobile-Sierra GFAs was needed to maintain the bargain of the original MISO Agreement, in which the MISO transmission owners agreed that GFAs would be kept outside of MISO for a six-year transition period. See GFA Reh’g Order, 111 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,042, at 61,134 P 94. In total, the 127 carved-out Mobile-Sierra GFAs accounted for approximately 9.5 percent of MISO’s total load. GFA Order/ 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,236, at 62,297 P 141. The Commission also addressed the designation of GFA-REs and GFA-SEs. Unless the parties agreed otherwise, the Commission determined that the transmission owner responsible for providing service under the GFA should be both the GFA-RE and the GFA-SE. See id. at 62,300-01 PP 161, 165. Finally, the Commission addressed the assessment of MISO charges on GFA agreements. It concluded that the administrative costs associated with the new markets — known as Schedule 17 charges— should be assessed on all load using the MISO grid, including carved-out GFAs. See id. at 62,321-22 PP 297-98. Applying the “cost-causation” principle, the Commission found that the new markets would “produce more reliable service and more efficient Energy Markets that will benefit all [parties] transacting over the Midwest ISO grid,” and concluded that “GFAs should pay for the benefits they receive.” Id. at 62,322 P 298. But the Commission concluded that carved-out GFAs should not pay Schedule 16 charges, which cover the cost of administering the market in FTRs, because carved-out GFAs “do not benefit from the FTR Service.” Id. at 62,321 P 295. E Three groups of petitioners now seek review of the 11 orders approving the Tariff and addressing the treatment of the GFAs. The first group, led by the Midwest Transmission Dependent Utilities, is made up of buyers of power in the new markets. They argue that FERC should have required more stringent market power mitigation measures and that the Commission’s approval of MISO’s marginal loss refund mechanism was arbitrary and capricious. The second group, led by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the Dairyland Power Cooperative (the Cooperatives), is composed of buyers of power under GFA agreements. They argue that the imposition of Schedule 17 charges on carved-out GFAs was arbitrary and capricious and that the Commission’s denial of their request for an eviden-tiary hearing violated the Administrative Procedure Act and the Due Process Clause of the Constitution. The third group consists of Duke Energy Shared Services, Inc., and Xcel Energy Services Inc.— transmission owners who sell power in the new markets. They argue that all GFAs should have been required to choose between conversion to the Tariff, Option A, or Option C, and that FERC acted arbitrarily by carving out some GFAs entirely and granting others favorable treatment under Option B. In addition, Xcel challenges FERC’s designation of the GFA-RE and GFA-SE. The remainder of this opinion addresses the issues raised by each group of petitioners in turn. At the outset, however, we set forth the standard of review that is common to the objections asserted by all three. We review FERC’s orders by applying the Administrative Procedure Act’s “arbitrary and capricious” standard. See 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A); Midwest ISO Transmission Owners, 373 F.3d at 1368. Under this deferential standard, we must affirm the Commission’s orders as long as it has “examine[d] the relevant data and articulatefd] a satisfactory explanation for its action including a ‘rational connection between the facts found and the choice made.’ ” Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass’n v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 43, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983) (quoting Burlington Truck Lines, Inc. v. United States, 371 U.S. 156, 168, 83 S.Ct. 239, 9 L.Ed.2d 207 (1962)). We treat the Commission’s factual findings as conclusive as long as they are supported by substantial evidence. See 16 U.S.C. § 825i (b). Finally, we recognize that “matters of rate design ... are technical and involve policy judgments at the core of FERC’s regulatory responsibilities. Hence, the court’s review of whether a particular rate design is just and reasonable is highly deferential.” Me. Pub. Utils. Comm’n v. FERC, 454 F.3d 278, 287 (D.C.Cir.2006). II The Transmission Dependent Utilities buy power for resale to retail customers in the new markets overseen by the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO). These petitioners challenge two aspects of MISO’s operations under the Tariff. See Midwest Indep. Transmission Sys. Operator, Inc., 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,163 (2004) (“TEMT II Order”), order on reh’g, 109 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,157 (2004) (“TEMT II Reh’g Order”). First, the Transmission Dependents challenge MISO’s market power mitigation measures, which seek to prevent electricity suppliers from unduly raising prices above competitive levels in certain areas of MISO’s grids where transmission constraints sometimes give suppliers the power to influence prices. Second, the Transmission Dependents challenge MISO’s allocation of refunds for marginal loss charges, which account for the extra energy that generators must inject into a grid to supply electricity to faraway buyers (because electricity dissipates the further it travels from its source). We hold that FERC’s conclusions on these points were reasonable, and we therefore deny the Transmission Dependents’ petitions for review. A When electricity demand is high and the grids become congested, the possibility arises that sellers in some transmission constrained areas will be able to exercise their market power and charge higher-than-competitive prices. The Tariff separated these areas into Narrow Constrained Areas (NCAs), which pose more persistent competitive concerns, and Broad Constrained Areas (BCAs), which pose only intermittent competitive concerns. Under the Tariff, the independent market monitor compares bids in constrained areas to reference levels calculated from suppliers’ historical costs. If those bids exceed the reference level by a certain increment and fail a market impact test, the independent market monitor mitigates the bids — replacing them with lower amounts designed to give sellers an appropriate but not higher-than-competitive investment return. See TEMT II Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,-163, at 61,949-50 PP 242, 245, 247. “The conduct screen sifts out prices that by some amount or percentage exceed a reference price.... The impact screen tests whether that price increment actually would cause market-clearing prices to rise a certain amount or percentage over the price that would prevail in the event of mitigation.” Edison Mission Energy, Inc. v. FERC, 394 F.3d 964, 965-66 (D.C.Cir. 2005) (internal .quotation marks omitted). FERC concluded that the Tariffs approach to the mitigation of sellers’ market power in the NCAs and BCAs adequately responded to the market power problem by avoiding under-mitigation, and at the same time, not over-mitigating and squelching suppliers’ incentives to invest in additional capacity in those areas. Challenging that conclusion, the Transmission Dependents focus on features of FERC’s choices concerning the NCAs (Parts 1 and 2 below) and BCAs (Parts 3 and 4 below). 1 NCAs are areas where transmission constraints are expected to be binding for at least 500 hours during a given year, and where at least one seller is “pivotal” in that the constraint can only be resolved if the seller increases its generation output. See TEMT II Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,-163, at 61,955 P 276. The NCA definition thus focuses on individual seller conduct. See id. The NCA definition does not account for the possibility that even where a single seller lacks the influence over output necessary to be pivotal, a group of sellers in collusion may exercise such influence. More specifically, the NCA definition does not take into consideration how concentrated the relevant geographic section of the market is — even though there is a connection between market concentration and the likelihood of anticompetitive collusion: “Significant market concentration makes it easier for firms in the market to collude, expressly or tacitly, and thereby force price above or farther above the competitive level.” FTC v. H.J. Heinz Co., 246 F.3d 708, 724 (D.C.Cir.2001) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Brooke Group Ltd. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 509 U.S. 209, 227, 113 S.Ct. 2578, 125 L.Ed.2d 168 (1993) (“Tacit collusion ... describes the process, not in itself unlawful, by which firms in a concentrated market might in effect share monopoly power, setting their prices at a profit-maximizing, supracompetitive level by recognizing their shared economic interests and their interdependence with respect to price and output decisions.”). The Transmission Dependents challenge the omission of market concentration analysis from the NCA definition. They proposed that MISO focus on multilateral conduct and use a market concentration metric — such as the Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index (HHI), which “is calculated by totaling the squares of the market shares of every firm in the relevant market.” H.J. Heinz Co., 246 F.3d at 716 n. 9. (When the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission review proposed mergers, those agencies treat a market with an HHI value exceeding a certain level (1,800) as highly concentrated, meaning the merger warrants careful attention because of the risk of abuse of market power that might result from increased concentration. See id.). FERC rejected that proposal, concluding that market concentration analysis was not mandatory in defining NCAs. See TEMT II Reh’g Order, 109 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,157, at 61,704-05 PP 235, 241-44. FERC did, however, note that the independent market monitor could use the HHI to identify areas where market power is enough of a concern to warrant designation as NCAs; FERC thus deemed HHI analysis optional, not compulsory. See TEMT II Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,163, at 61,956 P 283. We conclude that FERC reasonably refused to direct MISO to define NCAs using the HHI or another market concentration measure. Petitioners’ argument that FERC precedent required a different determination errs in two respects: first, in misreading a prior FERC order in one case concerning market-based rates, and second, in mistaking the binding force of a subsequent FERC order in another case concerning the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) Regional Transmission Organization (RTO). First, in AEP Power Marketing, Inc., FERC addressed aspects of its market-based rate evaluation framework, which applies to electricity suppliers that have received FERC’s permission to charge market-based rates (rather than rates subject to “traditional cost-based rate ceilings”). See 107 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,018, at 61,054-70 PP 30-127 (2004); Grand Council of the Crees v. FERC, 198 F.3d 950, 953 (D.C.Cir.2000). FERC requires an applicant that wants to charge market-based rates to establish, among other things, “that it, and its affiliates, either do not have, or have adequately mitigated, market power in both generation and transmission.” Grand Council of the Crees, 198 F.3d at 953. To help determine which suppliers exercise market power and therefore ought not be given the latitude to charge market-based rates, FERC decided in AEP to use two analytical screens, one of which focuses on the generator’s seasonal market share. Generators with a market share of 20 percent or more are presumed to have market power, but they can produce evidence rebutting the presumption. See 107 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,018, at 61,060-61 PP 71-72, 61,065-66 PP 101-03. Because the AEP order did not embrace use of the HHI, it cannot be taken as precedent requiring its use here. Looking at a single firm’s individual market share, as FERC did in AEP, is obviously not the same thing as looking at all of the market shares of all of the firms in the market, which is what a concentration metric such as the HHI does — and which is what petitioners demanded MISO had to do in defining NCAs. Moreover, the market-based rate framework used in AEP is concerned with shifting the burden of proof on market power to generators with seasonal market shares of 20 percent or more; in contrast, all supplier bids in NCAs are reviewed under the conduct and impact tests, and suppliers have no opportunity to forestall application of those tests by offering evidence that they do.not possess market power. Thus, as FERC properly noted, the market-based rates framework and the NCA concept are sufficiently distinct that “pieces of one should not automatically be used as precedent for the other.” TEMT II Reh’g Order, 109 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,157, at 61,705 P 242. Second, petitioners are mistaken in relying on a subsequent proceeding in which FERC asked the PJM RTO to explain why it did not use the market power tests described in FERC’s AEP order. See PJM Interconnection, LLC, 110 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,053, at 61,249 PP 80, 84 (2005). FERC issued the PJM order after FERC issued the rehearing order approving the MISO Tariff (dated November 8, 2004); it is that rehearing order that is challenged in this case. See TEMT II Reh’g Order, 109 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,157, at 61,663. Agencies are ordinarily not required to “explain alleged inconsistencies in the resolution of subsequent cases,” when the subsequent case is not “part of a pattern of arguably inconsistent decision-making that began before the challenged action.” AT & T Inc. v. FCC, 452 F.3d 830, 839 (D.C.Cir. 2006) (internal quotation marks omitted). Petitioners have not established that there was any such pattern of inconsistency beginning before FERC’s original order approving the MISO tariff, so the ordinary rule governs, and in this case we cannot require FERC to square the PJM order with its decision concerning MISO. In any event, the PJM order simply reflected a line of inquiry by FERC concerning the reasonableness of the RTO’s proposed concentration metric, but it in no way required all RTOs to use concentration metrics in all market power mitigation frameworks. In fact, the PJM proceedings ended in a settlement that decided nothing. As FERC noted: “The Commission’s approval of the settlement agreement does not constitute approval of, or precedent regarding, any principle or issue in this proceeding.” PJM Interconnection, LLC, 114 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,076, at 61,282 P 3 (2006) (emphasis added). And this Court has already held that neither FERC nor challengers may rely on an uncontested settlement as precedent. Kelley ex rel. Mich. Dep’t of Natural Res. v. FERC, 96 F.3d 1482, 1490 (D.C.Cir.1996). FERC’s orders in the AEP and PJM proceedings, then, did not compel it to direct MISO to perform market concentration analysis in defining NCAs. And FERC reasonably explained that market concentration analysis carried too great a risk of over-mitigation in the context of this market power mitigation scheme. See Motor Vehicle Mfrs. Ass’n v. State Farm, Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 463 U.S. 29, 43, 103 S.Ct. 2856, 77 L.Ed.2d 443 (1983) (“[T]he agency must examiné, the relevant data and articulate a satisfactory explanation for its action including a rational connection between the facts found and the choice made.”) (internal quotation marks omitted). Requiring the market power mitigation framework to focus on market concentration carried the risk of over-mitigation, and FERC reasonably took that into account. In sum, FERC’s conclusion that market concentration analysis was not necessary to properly identify areas warranting NCA treatment was reasonable. 2 Within an NCA, the conduct test compares (i) a supplier’s bid to (ii) the supplier’s reference price — calculated from historical cost data — plus a “fixed cost adder” set at the supplier’s “net annual fixed cost divided by the constrained hours” for the given year. See TEMT II Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,163, at 61,959 P 312. The Tariff defined the net annual fixed cost to be “the fixed cost of a new peaking generator minus revenue from applicable resource reserve adequacy payments.” Id. at 61,959 n. 209. The fixed cost adder is designed to ensure that suppliers earn enough money not only to pay for generation of each additional unit of electricity within the NCA, but also to recover fixed costs such as the cost of building generation facilities. The premise is straightforward: If sellers are unable to recover fixed costs, they will have little reason to remain in the area or to invest in new capacity for the area. See id. at 61,960 PP 316-17. The Transmission Dependents seek to invalidate the fixed cost adder. They contend that the adder was vaguely defined and overly generous to suppliers at the expense of buyers such as the Transmission Dependents. According to petitioners, in those few NCAs where recovery of fixed costs poses' a genuine problem, MISO should simply have set the adder at the supplier’s marginal cost plus a 10-percent booster. FERC rejected that approach, concluding that the fixed cost adder as defined in the Tariff “provides a careful balance between the need to mitigate market power and to provide an efficient incentive to invest.” Id. at 61,960 P 317. Petitioners fail to convince us that FERC’s approval of the fixed cost adder was unsupported by the evidence or inadequately explained. FERC’s overall task, of course, was to ensure, based on record evidence, that the rates and practices set forth in the MISO Tariff were just, reasonable, and not unduly discriminatory. See 16 U.S.C. § 824d(a), (b). “The burden,” however, “is on the petitioners to show that the Commission’s choices are unreasonable and its chosen line of demarcation is not within a zone of reasonableness as distinct from the question of whether the line drawn by the Commission is precisely right.” ExxonMobil Gas Mktg. Co. v. FERC, 297 F.3d 1071, 1084 (D.C.Cir.2002) (internal quotation marks omitted). Petitioners’ argument that the appropriate investment incentive should have been limited to marginal-cosNplus-10-percent certainly casts no doubt upon the reasonableness of the adder that FERC approved. “[T]he just and reasonable standard,” the Supreme Court has explained, “does not compel the Commission to use any single pricing formula.” Mobil Oil Exploration & Producing Se., Inc. v. United Distribution Cos., 498 U.S. 211, 224, 111 S.Ct. 615, 112 L.Ed.2d 636 (1991). Petitioners essentially submit that fixed cost recovery is universally guaranteed by setting the adder at marginal cost (as estimated from historical cost data) plus 10 percent, but that mistakenly presupposes the existence of a “single pricing formula” for fixed cost recovery that meets the just and reasonable standard. Id. Petitioners’ argument goes astray, in other words, by substituting a pinpoint (marginal cost plus 10 percent, and not a penny more) for a zone of reasonable options FERC can choose from. See ExxonMobil Gas Mktg., 297 F.3d at 1084. Moreover, FERC’s conclusion that the fixed cost adder was necessary “to provide an efficient incentive to invest” was a judgment about the future behavior of entities FERC regulates. TEMT II Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,163, at 61,960 P 317. This forecast — that approval of the fixed cost adder would help ensure that electricity suppliers continue to invest in NCAs — was a reasonable predictive judgment that warrants judicial deference. It is well established that an “agency’s predictive judgments about areas that are within the agency’s field of discretion and expertise are entitled to particularly deferential review, as long as they are reasonable.” EarthLink, Inc. v. FCC, 462 F.3d 1, 12 (D.C.Cir.2006) (internal quotation marks omitted and emphasis altered); see Envtl. Action, Inc. v. FERC, 939 F.2d 1057, 1064 (D.C.Cir.1991) (“[I]t is within the scope of the agency’s expertise to make ... a prediction about the market it regulates, and a reasonable prediction deserves our deference notwithstanding that there might also be another reasonable view.”). Petitioners contend that FERC’s predictive judgment failed to account for the testimony of two experts, who essentially opined that not every supply-constrained area of a power grid — a load pocket— needs an investment incentive like the fixed cost adder. The expert testimony that petitioners rely on, however, did not refute FERC’s conclusion that a fixed cost adder was appropriate for NCAs. The analysis by the Transmission Dependents’ witness, Laurence Kirsch, was not anchored in the particular terms used in the Tariff (such as the NCA definition or the fixed cost adder definition); rather, Kirsch made claims at a high level of generality. He stated, for example, that FERC “should be aware that there may be some times and places” where the “efficiency justification for high electricity prices is lacking.” Kirsch Aff. at 7 (emphasis added). That testimony fell short of establishing that the fixed cost adder was inappropriate for the NCAs as defined in the Tariff. The testimony from the market monitor’s witness, David Patton, likewise did not contradict FERC’s conclusion. He stated that “new investment is not always necessary in the load pocket.” Protest of Midwest [Transmission Dependent Utilities], FERC Docket No. ER04-691-000, at 134 (May 7, 2004) (internal quotation marks omitted and emphasis altered). That statement made the undisputed point that an effective market power mitigation scheme is one that seeks to distinguish between price increases attributable to resource scarcity (which signal a need for investment to reduce the scarcity) and price increases attributable to exercise of market power (which do not signal investment need and instead reflect lack of competition). If anything, the portion of Patton’s testimony that petitioners quote suggests that interference with market prices should be avoided: “Markets,” he testified, “should establish transparent price signals that accurately reveal the marginal value of resources in the load pockets.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). That statement did not cast doubt upon the logic of the fixed cost adder — which, by affording suppliers latitude in setting prices, embraces rather than undermines the notion that transparent price signals are good for the market. In short, petitioners have not identified relevant record evidence that compelled FERC to invalidate the fixed cost adder. Petitioners’ final argument concerning the fixed cost adder is that FERC unreasonably declined to require MISO to revise the Tariff to clarify that the fixed cost adder calculation takes into account (“nets”) all sources of fixed cost recovery — such as retail rates approved by state authorities. But petitioners informed FERC that they understood how the calculations would be performed, noting their understanding that the independent market monitor would “net any retail rate recovery against the numerator of the fixed cost adder.” Id. at 129. So even assuming that the Tariff was imprecise in explaining how the adder would be calculated, petitioners’ argument on this point does not warrant relief; they have admitted that they understand the very Tariff term they deem confusing. 3 Supplier bids in constrained areas may exceed reference levels by a certain amount under the conduct test before they are subject to the impact test for mitigation. In NCAs that certain amount is the fixed cost adder. BCAs are structured differently to account for their more robust competitive conditions. A supplier’s bid in a BCA fails the conduct test if it exceeds the reference level by the lesser of $100 per megawatt hour or 300 percent. The bid goes on to fail the impact test if it would cause the market-clearing price to rise — by- the lesser of $100 per megawatt-hour or 200 percent — above the price that would have prevailed had the supplier .bid at the reference level. See TEMT II Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,163, at 61,959 PP 307-12. The Transmission Dependents urged FERC to revise those numbers, arguing that they afford suppliers in BCAs too much leeway to charge high prices before mitigation kicks in. FERC rejected those arguments. See TEMT II Reh’g Order, 109 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,157, at 61,700-01 PP 215-21. Petitioners fear that suppliers in BCAs will hike their prices to just below the specified limits — to rake in as much money as they can without triggering mitigation. But FERC reasonably concluded that petitioners’ scenario is not likely to become reality. In BCAs, concerns about market power are “minimal” or “not expected to be significant on an on-going basis.” TEMT II Order, 108 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,163, at 61,953 P 264; TEMT II Reh’g Order, 109 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,157, at 61,701 P 221. That means — by definition — that suppliers in these areas ordinarily face competition and must therefore charge what the market will bear, but suppliers may not charge more than that without risking the loss of customers to competing suppliers. Rivals will quickly undercut a supplier that insists on pushing its permissible pricing to the limit (by charging an amount just below mitigation-triggering levels). Again, most of the time a BCA is a competitive market. And in “a competitive market, where neither buyer nor seller has significant market power, it is rational to assume that the terms of their voluntary exchange are reasonable, and specifically to infer that price is close to marginal cost, such that the seller makes only a normal return on its investment.” Tejas Power Corp. v. FERC, 908 F.2d 998, 1004 (D.C.Cir.1990). Equally unavailing are the other arguments advanced against FERC’s approval of the BCA mitigation framework. In deciding that the BCA ceilings are just and reasonable, FERC emphasized that approving the MISO market power mitigation- scheme required striking a balance between, on the one hand, detecting and dampening exercises of market power and, on the other hand, allowing generators to charge prices that are high enough for them to recover their fixed costs. See TEMT II Reh’g Order, 109 F.E.R.C. ¶ 61,-157, at 61,701 P 221. Mitigation within NCAs takes fixed cost recovery into account through the fixed cost adder. But in BCAs, there is no fixed cost adder. Rather, in these areas, the more lenient ceilings to which prices may rise above reference before triggering mitigation allow for fixed cost recovery. Those ceilings, FERC concluded, reflect an appropriate trade-off between the interests of buyers and sellers — and, of course, setting a just and reasonable rate necessarily “involves a balancing of the investor and the consumer interests.” FPC v. Hope Natural Gas Co., 320 U.S. 591, 603, 64 S.Ct. 281, 88 L.E