Bills target utilities on eminent domain, open records
By Kenric Ward / January
19, 2015 / Watchdog.org Virginia Bureau
Energy
and Environment, News, North
Carolina, Open Records, Virginia, West
Virginia / 1 Comment
Kenric Ward is a
national reporter for Watchdog.org and chief of its Virginia Bureau. Contact
him at kenric@watchdogvirginia.org or at (571) 319-9824. @Kenricward
Kenric Ward is
a veteran journalist who has worked on three Pulitzer Prize-winning newspapers.
A California
native, he received a BA from UCLA (Political Science/Phi Beta Kappa) and holds
an MBA. He reported and edited at the San Jose
Mercury News and the Las Vegas
Sun before joining Watchdog.org in 2012 as Virginia Bureau Chief.
WEB LINK: http://watchdog.org/193491/eminent-domain-open-records/
RICHMOND, Va. — A land-rights coalition wants to curb the power of Virginia’s public
utilities and open company records to the Freedom of Information Act.
At the
urging of the Augusta County Alliance, Sens. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon, and Creigh Deeds, D-Bath, seek to repeal a 2004 state law that
allows utilities to go onto private lands to conduct surveys without permission
of property owners.
The issue is
a volatile one, as Dominion Energy plans to run a large-gauge natural-gas
pipeline across Virginia
— much of it on private land.
Travis
Geary, a leader in the Augusta uprising, accuses the state’s largest
utility of “corporate overreach” and “flaunting eminent domain.”
“As
demonstrated by Dominion’s recent lawsuits against landowners, the interests of
utilities in Virginia
have come to compete with the well-being of the people in an unhealthy way,”
Geary said.
Jim Norvelle, director of communications for Dominion,
responded:
“Natural gas
companies need to talk with landowners and survey their properties to find the
best possible route with the least impact to the environment, historic and
cultural resources. The landowners know their properties best. Surveys would
show if the property is or is not suitable for a pipeline and if a reroute is
needed.”
Gov. Terry
McAuliffe’s administration sides with Dominion’s plan to pipe natural gas from West Virginia to Hampton
Roads and North Carolina.
Unlike his Democratic Party brethren in Washington,
who have opposed the Keystone XL Pipleline on the
Plains, McAuliffe hails the 550-mile Virginia gas line as
an economic boon for the state.
Virginia
Attorney General Mark Herring, another Democrat, has vowed to defend the utilities’ survey
rights in court.
Read Dominion’s lawsuit here.
Meantime,
two other bills would require public utilities to comply with Freedom of
Information Act requests.
House Bill 1696, by
Delegate Dickie Bell, R-Staunton, would subject
utility companies to FOI requirements whenever they engage in a project for
which they may use eminent domain.
Hanger is
sponsoring a similar bill, Senate Bill 1166.
In a related
move, Delegate Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon, wants
to include “comments” on proposals filed with the State Corporations
Commission, which oversees utilities. His bill is HB 2013.
Megan Rhyne said her Virginia Coalition for Open Government
“generally supports efforts to include SCC under the auspices of the Freedom of
Information Act. We think all state agencies should be under FOIA instead of
governed by a separate statute, as is the case with the SCC right now.”
Bell said if Dominion gets the permit needed to
build its $5 billion pipeline, Virginia
citizens should have access to any information the company gathers when taking
private land through forced sales.
Norvelle declined to comment on the FOI measures.