On Monday, April 11, the NJ Supreme Court issued an opinion on a case which involved an applicant's ability to intervene on an appeal involving its approval. The case arose when a group of environmental protection advocates challenged the DEP's Highlands Applicability and Water Quality Management Plan Consistency Determination (HAD) for a natural gas company's planned project and excluded the natural gas company from the appeal. The natural gas company then moved to intervene, but that motion was denied by the Appellate Court. Due to the potentially large precedent-setting impact of this case on all applicants before all government agencies, NJBA filed an amicus brief along with other business trade groups arguing that the applicant should be considered an interested party to an appeal on a government approval involving its business and/or property.