TGE: They're Baaack!

Call it the power plant that just won't fizzle out.

TransGas Energy (TGE) has filed a petition with the New York State Board on Electric Generation and Siting and the Environment (hereafter the "Siting Board") - (reading that entire legal brief must have influenced us a bit) - to overturn its June 25th Order that TGE get the necessary approvals from the city to tear up streets and other public right-of-ways to put in underground pipes and steam tunnels.

To make a long story short (the issue will be covered in greater depth in the August 2nd print edition), attorneys for TGE argue that requiring city approval runs counter to the Siting Board's legislative intent, which was to bypass local municipal law that held up the construction of major electric generation facilities. From the legal papers:

A "realistic appraisal" of the statutory language and the legislative intent leads to the conclusion that the Board must have the authority to allow use of the City's property, even over the City's objection, in order to carry out the legislature's intent to elevate the siting of major electric generating facilities to a state, not a local function.

According to TGE's lawyers, the state has basically handed over the decision on whether or not to construct the power plant to the commissioner of the city's Department of Transportation, which would have to grant permits to tear up city streets. The city has been adamantly opposed to the plant, envisioning the North Brooklyn waterfront parcel where TGE wants to build the facility as the home of a future park, as outlined by the Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning.

This is just the latest in what appears to be a neverending cycle of legal maneuverings on the part of TGE, which has included suing the city and holding their own confusing eminent domain hearing.

TGE Nearly PUlls Off Public Hearing Under Community's Nose
Efforts to Condemn Bayside Fuel Site Continue
Judge Puts Park Plans on Hold