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Letter, 4/9: Senators' action
deplorable
Corporate abuse of eminent domain law « Great Plains Tar
Sands ...
All of you finding yourselves on the
wrong end of corporate abuse of eminent
domain may be interested in an
appeal currently before the Texas
Supreme Court.
April 12, 2012 by Carrie La Seur
All of you finding yourselves on the wrong end of
corporate abuse of eminent domain may be interested in an appeal currently
before the Texas
Supreme Court. In the case of Texas Rice Land Partners Ltd. and Mike Latta vs. Denbury Green
Pipeline-Texas, LLC, the court held that a pipeline owner shipping exclusively
for a corporate affiliate is not a common carrier within the definition
required for exercise of eminent domain. In a nutshell, eminent domain is
a common law descendant of the sovereign’s power to take private property when
needed for the common good, like road-building. In the present day,
private parties must show common carrier status, meaning that their project
(transmission lines, pipelines, etc.) is available to the public on fairly
negotiated terms. If the project is meant for private use – as the court
believed this pipeline to be – then it isn’t a common carrier and eminent
domain isn’t available. Corporations would have to buy easements from
every landowner along the way on the landowner’s terms, and landowners could
simply refuse.
For this reason, Denbury
Pipeline is singing the virtues of respect for “corporate separateness” where
common carrier status is at stake. In the Motion for Rehearing, 4 attorneys from Houston and Fort
Worth argue that all kinds of mischief will be created
by considering it a private transaction when the corporate owner of a pipeline
ships natural gas only for its corporate affiliate. This is nothing but
an extension of the “special rights for corporations” doctrine so favored by
the people who brought us the Citizens United U.S. Supreme
Court majority. If Joe owned a pipeline and only used it to ship his
sister Alison’s gas, it would be perfectly obvious that this was a private,
sweetheart deal for a family member and Joe had no reasonable argument that his
pipeline was a common carrier. When corporations do the same thing,
“corporate separateness” is suddenly the basis of our economic system, no
matter how closely tied they are. Corporations are not only people, apparently, they’re people whose intimate dealings
can never deprive them of common carrier status and the fearsome, sovereign
power of eminent domain. So far the Texas Supreme Court has recognized this
argument for the garbage that it is. Let’s hope they stick to their guns
(always a good bet in Texas).
tags: common carrier, eminent domain, Texas
http://tarsandspipelines.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/corporate-abuse-of-eminent-domain-law/
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Letter, 4/9: Senators' action
deplorable
Lincoln Journal Star, NEBRASKA,
It boggles my mind that all of
our state senators, except for two, are doing everything in their power to
allow TransCanada, a foreign company, to come into
our state and steal our personal property with eminent domain.
TransCanada doesn't even have a permit or an application for a permit in our
country. I thought we voted our senators into office to protect Nebraska citizens. Well,
I was dead wrong. Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?
Our legislators are putting in
laws just for TransCanada. We paid state senators to
have a special session to put in laws last year to protect us from pipelines,
and at the time they exempted TransCanada.
Now that TransCanada's
permit was rejected, our senators are making a new law so that TransCanada doesn't have to abide by the state law in
place.
Eminent domain was supposed to
be allowed only if a permit had been approved by the federal government. But
here state senators are handing TransCanada our
personal property on a silver platter. Eminent domain is supposed to be used in
any case only if it is for the public good. We all know that Keystone XL is
only going to be for the good of TransCanada.
It will not lower our gas
prices; if anything, it will increase them. The picture gets clearer all the
time, and it looks like our country has been overexposed to TransCanada.
Joyce Petit, Inland http://journalstar.com/news/opinion/mailbag/letter-senators-action-deplorable/article_adadad5c-4eb5-5f72-a156-cae768606c86.html