"A federal appeals court has upheld Maryland's decision to deny a water quality certification for a liquefied natural gas terminal at Baltimore's Sparrows Point.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied Arlington-based AES Corp.'s petition for review late last month. AES had argued Maryland failed to decide on its application within a year of its proposal and the state's certification denial was 'arbitrary and capricious' because it considered water flow a form of pollution under the Clean Water Act.

But the court panel ruled (pdf) that Maryland regulators decided within one year of the Army Corps of Engineers' provision of necessary information -- not when AES had submitted its application."

Katherine Ling reports for Greenwire January 4, 2010. [2]