Eminent domain and closed-door decisions
“Kinder Morgan’s Northeast Energy Directive includes a plan to build a new 36-inch high-pressure natural-gas pipeline across 45 Massachusetts towns. This company will be applying to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a license that would give them federal eminent-domain rights for the project. If granted, such rights would allow them to take a 100-foot easement for pipeline construction from any of the more than 1,000 affected landowners with whom they could not reach a voluntary agreement.
Granting a private, for-profit company this type of power over the property rights of so many organizations and individuals is a matter of grave concern and one that demands intense scrutiny from officials at all levels of government. And it also demands that the need for a project that could result in the taking of so much private property be determined in an open, public forum where all interested parties are invited to participate and comment.
I believe that there are two specific steps that are necessary before such eminent-domain use can be justified:”
Nasho Publishing 3 October 2014.