Keystone builder files for eminent
domain for pipeline route
The Hill By Timothy Cama - 01/20/15 10:33 AM EST
WEB
LINK: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/230027-keystone-builder-files-for-eminent-domain-for-pipeline-route
The company
building the Keystone XL pipeline is filing eminent domain claims to take
easements for the pipe from landowners who do not want to willingly sell their
land rights.
TransCanada
Corp. said Tuesday that it filed the court documents in Nebraska for the parts
of the planned pipeline route for which it does not have easements, which
amounts to 12 percent of the route.
“Despite the filings,
TransCanada will continue to work to acquire voluntary easement agreements,”
Andrew Craig, who is leading the Keystone land efforts for TransCanada, said in
a statement.
“If we are
unable to come to agreement, a panel of local appraisers appointed by the
county court will recommend a value for compensation,” he said. “Eminent domain
is a last resort and our first priority is always to negotiate voluntary
agreements with landowners.”
The company
said landowners will continue to own and use the land, including for farming.
Eminent
domain is usually reserved for governments wishing to take land or easements.
But a Nebraska
law gives TransCanada the power to take land for Keystone.
A group of
landowners challenged that law in court in a high-profile case that threatened
to derail Keystone. But earlier this month, the state’s highest court affirmed
the law and the route.
Some of
those landowners said last week that they would file individual challenges to
their eminent domain filings in another attempt to stop the pipeline
**************************