United Illuminating has filed a legal appeal of last year’s decision by state regulators to reject the company’s request to construct a high-voltage transmission line on steel monopoles through parts of Bridgeport and Fairfield. The appeal, filed in New Britain Superior Court in March, alleg es the Connecticut Siting Council bowed to political pressure from state and local officials to oppose the project after its members had initially signaled their support. It asks that the court toss out that decision and order the Siting Council to instead approve the project. News of the legal filing was first reported Monday by the Connecticut Post. “This project is essential to maintaining the long-term safety and reliability of the electric system, and the Siting Council has acknowledged the need for the project,” UI spokesperson Angela Baccaro said in a statement Monday. “We look forward to advancing this project, which is essential to the delivery of safe and reliable power to the communities we serve.” Opponents of the project argue that the transmission line — suspended from steel poles up to 195 ft. in the air — would visually tower over neighborhoods, homes, businesses, churches and a library. The proposal also required UI to take 19 acres of property easements along the line’s route. Instead of building the line overhead, opponents sought to have UI pursue an underground alternative. The company has responded that burying the line would add up to $500 million to the project’s existing $300 million price tag. “United Illuminating’s recitation of the facts and background of this case are incomplete,” Lee Hoffman, an attorney for the city of Bridgeport said Monday. “When the full facts and circumstances are heard, I believe the courts will uphold this decision.” The appeal did not name any officials directly. But Gov. Ned Lamont publicly waded into the dispute in September when he asked the Siting Council to postpone its final vote on the project in order to allow the two sides to come together and work out a potential compromise. Those talks failed to produce an agreement. A spokesperson in Lamont’s office declined to comment on Monday. The decision followed several instances of flip-flopping on the issue by members of the Siting Council, which is in charge of approving the location of power plants, transmission lines and other energy infrastructure projects in the state. The council originally approved UI’s request to build the 7.3-mile transmission line in 2024, though its route was moved to the north side of the Metro-North railroad tracks in response to public opposition to the company’s proposed route, which followed the south side of the tracks. A judge later determined that the council lacked the authority to alter the route in response to a lawsuit by officials in Bridgeport, Fairfield and other local stakeholders along the route. On remand the following year, the Siting Council held two non-binding straw votes: the first signaling its intention to reject the project and the second to approve it before the final vote was cast in October to reject UI’s application. In its appeal filing, attorneys for UI said that members of the council provided no rationale for their repeated reversals. “The only explanation for the sudden and unexplained about-face pivot to denying the Project is the extraordinary outside political pressure,” the filing read. The executive director of the Siting Council, Melanie Bachman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. ...read more read less