Keystone XL pipeline: TransCanada sends final offers to 100-plus Nebraska landowners
“The letters also say the company will pursue eminent domain against landowners who don’t agree to terms by Jan. 16. The company says Nebraska law requires condemnation proceedings to start within two years of the state’s approval of the pipeline route, which occurred Jan. 22, 2013.
“This really is an effort to reach voluntary agreements rather than going through the eminent domain process,” said Andrew Craig of Omaha, Keystone’s land manager. “We always prefer to go through negotiations.”
The director of a leading pipeline opposition group said there are 115 landowner holdouts, and she expects them to refuse the latest offer. Jane Kleeb of Bold Nebraska also argued that the company lacks a legal basis to use eminent domain since the state’s pipeline routing law has been declared unconstitutional and is under review by the Nebraska Supreme Court.
“This is not about money,” Kleeb said. “This is about their family legacies, their land and protecting their water.”
The state’s highest court could rule on the pipeline case as early as Friday.”
Duggan, Joe. World Herald Bureau 17 December 2014.