Letter to the editor: Companies should not have rights of eminent domain
“n 2010, Montana-Alberta-Tie-Line (MATL), a Calgary-based company, tried to have a man’s land condemned to put a transmission line on his family property. The landowner won the case in district court. However, in 2011 the Montana Legislature passed HB 198, which gave private utilities eminent domain rights if they held a permit issued under the Major Facility Siting Act (MFSA). This law provided MATL with the legal right to seize this man’s property.
According to the Montana Department of Environment Quality, the primary goal of MFSA is “to ensure the protection of the state’s environmental resources … to provide citizens with an opportunity to participate in facility siting decisions.” Providing MFSA permit holders with eminent domain power does not further these goals but rather violates citizens’ ability to participate in facility siting decisions. Private property rights are essential to the future freedom of this state and country. As young people, we want the security of knowing that our future purchases will not be seized from us. Furthermore, MFSA permit holders are not even required to prove public use of condemned land in court! A private, for-profit, utility has no right taking a Montanan’s land.”
Wagner, Cassia and Coleman Vick. Bozeman Daily Chronical 4 March 2013.