No Land Grab: Keystone will rely on Eminent Domain!?
The Daily KOS by JL Finch
Why haven't I heard more about this before
now?
Of course the Keystone XL pipeline will need to rely on
Eminent Domain to site the pipeline along its alignment. Where the path crosses
private land, if the landowner refuses to grant an easement, the easement will
need to be taken (condemned) by eminent domain.
I thought those right-wing types HATED eminent domain! The
taking of private property for a PRIVATE benefit - the benefit of TransCanada in this case, a FOREIGN corporation, and BigOil, who own the processing and shipping facilities in
Houston.
In the Right's hierarchy of needs, fossil-fuel production
trumps most everything else, including property rights.
Of course the project has now NOT received federal approval.
And Boehner and the US
Chamber are screaming bloody murder about it for the purpose of making
political hay.
Nebraska, Texas - these
ultra-conservative states are going to tolerate their private landowners being
strong-armed by a FOREIGN corporation? They are going to tolerate private
property being seized for corporate benefit?
article
Related
content...
The New York Times, Eminent Domain Fight Has a Canadian
Twist
A Canadian company has been threatening to confiscate
private land from South Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico, and is already suing many
who have refused to allow the Keystone XL pipeline on their property even
though the controversial project has yet to receive federal approval.
Randy Thompson, a cattle buyer in Nebraska, was informed
that if he did not grant pipeline access to 80 of the 400 acres left to him by
his mother along the Platte River, “Keystone will use eminent domain to acquire
the easement.” Sue Kelso and her large extended family in Oklahoma were sued in
the local district court by TransCanada, the pipeline
company, after she and her siblings refused to allow the pipeline to cross
their pasture.
“Their land agent told us the very first day she met with
us, you either take the money or they’re going to condemn the land,” Mrs. Kelso
said. By its own count, the company currently has 34 eminent domain actions
against landowners in Texas and an additional
22 in South Dakota.
Posted by eric at January 30, 2012 10:30 AM
http://www.nolandgrab.org/archives/2012/01/keystone_will_r.html