George Sutherland

“ The fact that to ordinary observation there is no appreciable lapse of time between the generation of the product and its transmission does not forbid the conclusion that they are, nevertheless, successive and not simultaneous acts.
The point is stressed that in appellant's system electricity is not stored in advance, but produced as called for. The consumer in Utah, it is said, by merely turning a switch, draws directly from the water fall in Idaho, through the generating devices, electrical energy which appears instantaneously at the place of consumption. ”

“ The various specific objections to the findings made below, and the failure to adopt others suggested by appellant, become immaterial in view of our conclusions. We are satisfied, upon a consideration of the whole case, that the process of generation is as essentially local as though electrical energy were a physical thing; and to that situation we must apply, as controlling, the general rule that commerce does not begin until manufacture is finished, and hence the commerce clause of the Constitution does not prevent the state from exercising exclusive control over the manufacture. ”

“ The corporation is a public utility engaged in generating, transmitting, and distributing electric power and energy for barter, sale, and exchange to consumers in each of these three states, and in interstate commerce among them. The present suit was brought to enjoin the enforcement of an act of the Idaho Legislature, levying a license tax on the manufacture, generation, or production, within the state, for barter, sale, or exchange, or electricity and electrical energy. ”

“ On the contrary, the generator and the transmission lines perform different functions, with a result comparable, so far as the question here under consideration is concerned, to the manufacture of physical articles of trade and their subsequent shipment and transportation in commerce. Appellant's chief engineer, although testifying that generation is a part of the process of transferring energy, said on cross-examination that in the process of generation there is a 'conversion of the mechanical energy in the turbine shaft into a different form of energy, that is electrical energy. ”

“ The manufacture to order of goods and their immediate shipment to the purchaser furnishes a helpful analogy, notwithstanding the fact that there the successive steps from order to delivery are open to physical observation, while here the succession of events is chiefly a matter of inference ”

“ There is nothing to suggest that the Legislature intended to cast any additional burden upon the producer or require him to yield to the irrigation consumers anything beyond the equivalent of the exemption. ”

“ The irrigation of even private lands in the arid region is a matter of public concern (Clark v. Nash, 198 U.S. 361, 25 S.C.t. 676, 49 L. Ed. 1085, 4 Ann. Cas. 1171) , and we are of opinion that an exemption of the character here involved is not precluded by the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. ”