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The lobby group New Era Energy says it has filed a formal request for a High Court judicial review of the Electricity Commission's decision to approve Transpower's proposed pylon line through South Auckland and the Waikato.
The Electricity Commission decision in July was the first "yes" that the state-owned grid operator needed to go ahead with construction of the $683 million line. Now it needs the nod from a Resource Management Act Board of Inquiry hearing due to start on March 25.
But New Era Energy claims there were four clear errors in law made by the Electricity Commission, including illegality, irrationality, pre-determination and bias, and mistake of fact.
"We believe the judicial review will uncover the flawed processes and inappropriate external influences that led to the Electricity Commission approving Transpower's horrendous 220/400 kV proposal for a 200km transmission line on 70m pylons into Auckland," said New Era Energy spokesman Bob McQueen.
"The decision that the commission arrived at to approve the Transpower proposal was not one that a reasonable, unbiased person would come to if the law had been followed," he said.
Mr McQueen said an affidavit from a former chairman of the Electricity Commission, Roy Hemmingway, was included with the documents filed in support of the request for a judicial review.
The affidavit addressed the stringent legal processes required of the commission to make decisions on transmission projects, and also described the interaction he had with government ministers in the months leading up to his sacking last year.
A judicial review decision would be unlikely before the middle of next year and it is not clear whether the Board of Inquiry process would be deferred until it was known.
The project has been vehemently opposed by farmers along the route.
- NZPA
