Big Appellate Win For Citizens Of Baltimore County
Today the U.S. Court of Appeals issued its opinion in AES Sparrows Point LNG LLC v. Md. Dept. of the Environment. AES wants to build a liquified natural gas terminal in eastern Baltimore County. To do this, AES needed to get the approval of federal and state regulatory authorities. They obtained the needed federal approval, but were denied by the state. The state's denial was based on the environmental impact of the proposed facility, because it involved deep water dredging, among other reasons. The backstory behind the state's denial is the overwhelming community opposition to the proposed plant. Simply put, the folks who live in eastern Baltimore County did not want this facility because of safety and environmental concerns. They did the smart thing, and complained to their elected officials. It seems that this pressure worked, and the state ultimately concuded the objections were well-founded and denied approval.
AES then went to federal court and sued, trying to force the state to approve their project. The trial court's ruling was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
The appellate court ruled in favor of the state, saying: "For reasons that follow, we uphold Maryland’s denial of AES’s § 401(a)(1) Certification Request on the independent ground that the
dredging required to accommodate the LNG tankers would create additional deep water areas where dissolved oxygen levels would fail to meet Maryland water quality standards." Basically, the court's ruling is that Maryland's reasons for denying approval were not arbitrary or capricious, and therefore the denial should stand.
This is a huge win for the community, which now will not be stuck with a project it didn't want. This also shows how representative democracy works. The community went to their elected representatives, County Executive Jim Smith and Congressman C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger, and those officials fought for what their constituents wanted. Agree or disagree, these guys did their jobs- sticking up for the people who elected them.
AES really can't do much about this opinion. Its options are to find a way to comply with the state's environmental requirements, or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. It is very unlikely that the Supreme Court would take the case. Last year, the Supreme Court received over 8,200 of these requests; the court agreed to hear less than two percent of those cases. Moreover, the 4th Circuit ruled unanimously and is generally regarded as the most conservative appellate circuit in the country. It is likely that the legal aspect of this dispute ends here, in a victory for the state.
