LETTER: Bill would give oil and gas industry power of eminent domain
“Colorado Senate Bill 14-093 gives the oil and gas industry the power of eminent domain for placement of pipelines, denying public and private landowners their right to negotiate placement or reject pipelines on their property. Eminent domain should be reserved for government agencies and public utility providers. Giving this power to for-profit, private corporations is contrary to the purpose of eminent domain because there is no established community need for these pipelines.
Colorado again betrays its people and reduces the concept of private property to meaningless verbiage. The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) has permitted companies to drill next to houses in suburban neighborhoods, next to schools, in flood planes, next to rivers, and in iconic wilderness areas. The COGCC allows these toxic chemical facilities to drill wherever industry wants to drill without any zoning consideration. They allow them to drill right through people’s aquifers, under major water bodies, and inject millions of gallons of a toxic slurry with minimum assurance that the chemicals will not contaminate water supplies.”
Post Independent 20 March 2014.