Bill revoking eminent domain headed to Senate floor
“The U.S. portion of the Montana Alberta Tie Line in northcentral Montana is about finished, but the debate over the use of eminent domain it sparked isn’t over.
In the future, developers of similar projects, called merchant lines, wouldn’t have the option of using eminent domain under a bill passed 7-6 by the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee on Thursday. Senate Bill 180, introduced by Sen. Debby Barrett, R-Dillon, revokes eminent domain power for merchant power line developers.
“You would have to go out and negotiate with the landowners,” Barrett says.
SB 180 will be debated on the Senate floor next, perhaps as soon as next week. It’s one of some 35 eminent domain bills being debated by the Legislature and the first to pass committee, Barrett said.
The bill would revoke the explicit grant of authority of a company to use eminent domain after it receives a permit under the Major Facility Siting Act. That power was granted by the 2011 Legislature after a district judge ruled that the MATL developer didn’t have the right.”
Puckett, Karl. Great Falls Tribune 8 February 2013.
NOTE – 15 April 2013. The link to the Great Falls Tribune no longer works nor can Taking Welton locate the article online.