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Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Environment - Adinistrative hearing in Indy on BP air variance challenge

The second half of this ILB entry from August 25th includes this quote from a Gary Post-Tribune story by Gitte Laasby:

BP and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management are facing new opposition against BP's air variance.

The City of Chicago, the Illinois Attorney General, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Law and Policy Center filed a petition Friday for administrative review of the air variance IDEM Commissioner Tom Easterly granted BP on July 5. * * *

DEM argued that the Office of Environmental Adjudication (OEA) should reject Illinois' petition because it was incomplete.

Illinois countered that rejecting the petition would prevent a "meaningful public review of IDEM's decision."

An OEA environmental judge is expected to respond in the coming weeks.

In this Oct. 2 P-T story, Laasby reports:
An environmental law judge plans to decide at the end of October or early November whether an Illinois appeal of BP's air variance will move forward.

Mary Davidsen, chief environmental law judge with the Office of Environmental Adjudication (OEA) heard oral arguments in Indianapolis on Monday from BP, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and a group of Illinois petitioners, including the Illinois Attorney General, the city of Chicago, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Law and Policy Center.

The Illinois petitioners want the OEA to review IDEM's decision in July to grant BP the variance, which allows the company to continue to emit the same amount of tiny particles into the air rather than reducing emissions by about half.

IDEM and BP have argued that the Illinois parties submitted an incomplete petition, and that a judge should not have agreed to hear the case.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 3, 2007 07:33 AM
Posted to Environment