Pipeline Companies Flout Law Nationwide, Take Land Without First Paying Property Owners

 
“In hundreds of documented examples from across the nation, powerful pipeline companies have convinced the courts to ignore the law and give these private companies other people’s land without first paying the owners any compensation, as required under federal law.

“We documented more than 200 eminent domain decisions where federal courts granted pipeline companies immediate possession of land, allowing these companies to take property now, put in their pipelines and pay later, even though Congress never granted these companies that authority,” said Institute for Justice Senior Attorney Robert McNamara. The Institute for Justice recently filed an appeal in such a case with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to end this practice and require the pipeline companies and the lower courts to follow the laws established by Congress. “These 200-plus examples represent just the tip of the iceberg. In the past five years alone, property owners in at least 18 states have had their land taken away by preliminary injunctions, which short-circuits the eminent domain process and results in owners losing their land today but receiving compensation only months or years in the future.””
 
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Kramer, John. Institute for Justice 8 April 2019.