[I]n two separate legal actions, Stop the Pipeline and the Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society filed notices in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the opening volley of civil court challenges to FERC’s decision to issue a certificate of necessity to the natural gas transmission project.
The opponents had been prevented from mounting a court challenge to the pipeline project until FERC last week denied their formal request for a rehearing on the certification decision issued in December 2014. The new legal challenges were brought against FERC, not the pipeline company.
“This is the first step in a long process,” said Anne Marie Garti, a Stop the Pipeline activist and environmental lawyer who was involved in preparing the challenge to FERC’s decisions. . .
Garti maintained that FERC has failed to documented a need for the gas that would be moved in the pipeline and violated the federal Clean Water Act by issuing a certificate to the project while state regulators have yet to approve water quality certificates.
“We’re challenging all of their orders,” she said.. . .
By The Daily Star / Joe Mahoney Staff Writer
February 5, 2016
complete article here:
http://www.thedailystar.com/news/local_news/group-sues-feds-to-block-pipeline/article_de101439-65c6-53b7-8194-00817c2bbabb.html
