Texas high court ruling gives hope to landowners in eminent domain fight
“TransCanada, the energy company behind the Keystone XL pipeline, was ordered by the Texas State Supreme Court last week to submit information on its use of eminent domain – an action that keeps a key landowner lawsuit alive.
Keystone opponents celebrated the move as a small victory in a larger battle against the company’s seizure of private property that has united left and right in Texas.
The paperwork will be used by state Supreme Court justices to decide whether to hear a case by Julia Trigg Crawford, a farmer who is arguing that TransCanada illegally used eminent domain to take over part of her land to build its pipeline.
At issue are the legal rights of landowners to prevent corporations from condemning private lands to build oil and gas infrastructure projects. The Keystone XL is being constructed to carry oil from Canada’s tar sands mines to Texas, and its 485-mile southern leg from Oklahoma to near Houston was completed this month. Depending on the outcome of Crawford’s case, TransCanada possibly could be forced to dig up the section of the pipe that runs through her property. The northern segment still needs State Department approval because it crosses an international boundary.
TransCanada’s takeover of private land has been a thorny issue in Texas and has brought together unlikely bedfellows. They range from environmentalists who largely oppose the project out of safety, water and climate change concerns to tea party members who see TransCanada’s power to seize people’s property as an abuse of eminent domain and government overreach.”
Bagley, Katherine. Miami Herald 14 January 2014.