Yet another judge’s ruling–which calls out the lack of impartiality of a state agency:
Plans to expand the Port of Wilmington through construction of a massive new container terminal in Edgemoor hit an obstacle again last week when a state judge placed another construction permit into limbo.
Delaware Superior Court Judge Kathleen Miller on Wednesday ruled that a decision last May from the Delaware Environmental Appeals Board – which upheld a permit to allow underwater work, such as dredging and construction of a bulkhead – failed “to reflect a rational consideration of the evidence.”
The sharply worded opinion places additional doubt and uncertainty around the ambitious, but long delayed, $635 million port construction project that backers say will bring thousands of new jobs to the state.
“Here, the (Environmental Appeals) board did not make factual findings, provide an analysis of the evidence presented, or explain its reasoning,” Miller said of the Appeals Board’s decision last year to deny a challenge to the construction permit, previously issued by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
Miller characterized the legal challenge, which had been brought by owners of competing port terminals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as a question of whether the Environmental Appeals Board “effectively rubber-stamped” the original permit.
Look, everyone would welcome the ‘good-paying blue-collar jobs’ that supporters of the Port expansion cite at every opportunity. Setting aside for the moment the question of whether that windfall would eventuate, I wonder whether this project can ever clear the legal and environmental hurdles that seem to be growing rather than subsiding. I wonder whether, deep down, legislative supporters of this project are just waving some sort of union flag to garner ongoing union support. I suspect that purported skepticism on the part of the Governor is indeed justified. I for one question whether this project will ever come to fruition. If legislators are merely engaged in a cynical grab for blue-collar support, then they are–cynical. To be fair, they may just be delusional.
I think we at least need to look at this project more critically–particularly in light of the failed promises Delaware’s Worst Governor Ever made about the Port. That it would be self-sustaining. It simply wasn’t, and shows no signs of being self-sustaining under its current iteration. Will significantly increasing the capacity of the Port make it more competitive, or will we just have an even bigger boondoggle on our hands?
Seems like only the judges are leveling with us. And maybe the Governor.