Category Archives: pipelines/common carriers

Peach State Bill Sets Up 2 Step Process for Private Entities & Eminent Domain.

Georgia’s Senate Bill 191  sets up this 2 step process for a pipeline to obtain eminent domain:

  • receive a “certificate of need” from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority; AND
  • approval by Georgia’s environmental agency 

A late amendment prohbited pipelines in coastal areas, the Georgia Coastal Zone Management Program, to “protect the drinking water.”

Atlanta Journal Constitution | Georgia Senate approves new pipeline limits

Show Me State. Show Me Property Rights. 3 Points informed: intel

  • demand responsible routing of utilities along property lines, boundary lines or section lines
  • require minimized land damage
  • Limits the amount of PSI exerted on soil

What supporters say: “protects our property rights from those who would steal our land for their own profit.”

How does the bill apply? It applies to all condeming entities BUT only to agricultural land.

Missouri HB 640 (2017)

Southeast Missourian | Mo. Agricultural bills

1st Amendment Protections in Eminent Domain. Case Study on Religion Owned Land.

Where: West Virginia

The eminent domain project: A gas pipeline

The religion owned land: Hare Krishna community

The 1st amendment argument: “infringement on its freedom of religion rights and “seeks to take a non-metaphorical bulldozer through the Vrindaban Parties’ property, and in turn, through their most sincerely held holy sites.”

The property to be taken:  50-foot-wide right of way about 3,000 feet long

The Offer: $7,000

Stay Tuned.

Power Source | Gas pipeline raises freedom of…

State Law Prohibits Eminent Domain for Private Gain. How do Pipes and Lines get built?

The State: Pennsylvania

The eminent domain prohibition: no eminent domain for private enterprise, even if there is a public use

The pipeline project: An interstate liquid natural gas pipeline is subject to federal law that allows for eminent domain even when state law prohibits it

Penn Live | Second Sunoco pipeline possible in Cumberland County, landowner continues fight

2017. Just the Facts. SB 741.

SB 741 by Kolkhorst. Relating to compensation to a property owner for property acquired by an entity with eminent domain authority.

  • Adds royalties and profit sharing to what maybe considered compensation to a property owner
  • Allows negotiations concerning compensation to be admitted into evidence during eminent domain proceedings.

2017. Just the Facts. Kolkhorst. SB 740.

SB 740 Relating to the acquisition of property by an entity with eminent domain authority.

  • Requires disclosure of new appraisals within 10 days or 3 days before a special commissioners hearing
  • Allows a property owner to be awarded attorney fees if the amount awarded is 20% higher than the final offer
  • Defines a list of new requirements for the bona fide good faith offer such as:
    • easement details
    • right to damages from construction
  • Requiring that a condeming entity pay an award before an…

Land Use. TREND. Easements to preempt government action.

Legal experts at Stanford say which easement would offer property owners protections from fracking:a conservation easement which they’ve named a mineral estate conservation easement (MECE) 

What’s not needed for a conservation easement: government regulation

The property value impact of a MECE: the property value is diminished but offset by a tax write-off

Are MECEs permitted in Texas? Yes

Standford News | New analysis suggests ways for landowners to limit fracking and mineral extraction…

2 Landowner Concerns After the latest Denbury/Texas Rice Ruling.

  • Is the amount of evidence required to be a common carrier reduced by this ruling?
  • Is the test set up by this ruling apply to more than just CO2 pipelines?
    • The test: a reasonable probability must exist that the pipeline will at some point after construction serve the public by transporting gas for one or more customers who will either retain ownership of their gas or sell it to parties other than the carrier

Texas Agriculture Law Blog | Texas A&M Agrilife | Texas Supreme Court Issues…

Pipelines. Eminent Domain. TXSCT clarification. 3 Points to be Conversant.

Is checking the box enough for the courts to say yes, pipeline, you have eminent domain? NO.

What do pipelines have to show in court? That there is a public use by meeting this standard:

  • “reasonable probability” that the pipeline would be used to transport gas
  • for “one or more customers who will either retain ownership of their gas or sell it to parties other than the carrier.”

Did Denbury meet the new standard? Yes, by showing its existing contract with another entity to transport…