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RCA issues order on CINGSA intervenor
Following up on a decision by an administrative law judge to allow Inlet Fish Producers Inc., Wild Pacific Salmon Inc. and Vincent L. Goddard intervenor status in its hearing on Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska’s application for a certificate of public convenience and necessity to provide natural gas storage services, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska issued an order Oct. 26 granting the intervention petition, subject to condition that Goddard and his companies, collectively referred to as Inlet Entities, retain counsel and file an entry of appearance within five days.
The notification by Administrative Law Judge John P. Wood that RCA had granted Inlet Entities petition to intervene is dated Oct. 19.
The law office of Stehle & Jarvi LLC filed an entry of appearance on behalf of Inlet Entities Oct. 25.
Conducive to ‘ends of justice’ In its Oct. 26 order RCA noted that the docket addresses the first application it has received for a certificate for natural gas storage service. Inlet Entities “own and operate a fish processing plant above the reservoir that CINGSA proposes to use for natural gas storage and an abandoned well connects the Inlet Entities’ property to CINGSA’s proposed underground storage reservoir.”
RCA said it considered factors for discretionary intervention and finds “that participation as a party by the Inlet Entities will be conducive to the ends of justice.”
Because of the tight timetable for a decision, with a statutory deadline for a final order by Jan. 31, 2011, and a hearing set for Nov. 9, 10 and 12, “coupled with the need to follow our formal process,” RCA said it was conditioning the intervention on Inlet Entities retaining counsel to represent them and filing an entry of appearance within five days.
Commissioner Janis Wilson dissented in part, saying she agrees with the decision to grant intervention, but “would not require them to obtain legal counsel,” but would leave that decision to the intervenor, “who will be paying the bill.”
—Kristen Nelson
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