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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Environment - More on: ELJ to set schedule for BP

Updating yesterday's ILB entry, two stories today on yesterday's hearing on the BP appeals.
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Gette Laasby of the Gary Post-Tribune writes:

INDIANAPOLIS -- Three appeals of BP Whiting's air permit won't get hearings until at least June next year. Meanwhile, construction at the refinery will continue without challenges.

At a prehearing conference in Indianapolis on Monday, BP, a coalition of environmental groups and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management agreed to conduct hearings in June 2009.

Environmental law judge Mary Davidsen, from the Office of Environmental Judication, will hear the cases. No date has been set. * * *

In exchange for an expedited time line for the hearings, a coalition of environmental groups agreed to drop their attempt to halt construction at the refinery. The full process can take three to four years. Instead, the parties will now go straight to exchanging information in preparation for the hearing next summer.

"Normally, these things can go on for years and years. That's actually fairly common," said Ann Alexander, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which represents Save the Dunes. "We were rushed through the permit process at lightning speed. We're going to have to take the time now to do what IDEM rushed us through."

The outcome of the appeal will determine whether BP will be required to install additional pollution control equipment.

Patrick Guinane of the NWI Times has this story. He notes:
Valparaiso attorney Kim Ferraro, who is representing Save the Dunes and the Hoosier Environmental Council, said the environmental groups challenging the air permit still are discussing whether to consolidate their appeals.

In the meantime, the appellants agreed to cancel three hearings scheduled for next month.

Mary Davidsen, the environmental law judge handling the case, said she will set aside two weeks for trial in June 2009 and another two weeks a couple of months later as a hedge against potential delays. The parties said they already have more than 9,000 pages of documents to parse.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on June 17, 2008 11:34 AM
Posted to Environment