Experts talk about erosion of property rights
“Andrew Morriss, dean of the University of Texas A&M School of Law, told 120 people attending the Montana Property Rights Conference Friday morning that a utility used condemnation proceedings to take thousands of trees off the Texas ranch owned by his in-laws in order to construct high transmission power lines.
He and two colleagues, Roy Brandys and Michael Barron, wrote a 2013 paper on the experiences of Morriss’ in-laws — including proposed remedies — called “Involuntary Cotenants: Eminent Domain and Energy and Communications Infrastructure Growth.”
When property owners share their property with an entity like a utility, “a lot of issues come up,” Morriss said, including “Who has the key to your gates? What are they doing about weed control? Who will pick up all the trash?”
“There will be a lot more takings [by utilities] as we move forward,” Morriss predicted. “There is a lot of infrastructure, and we’re going to need more. The issue is, are [utilities] going to pay for [a taking], or are they going to steal it?”
The two-day conference, sponsored by United Property Owners of Montana concluded at noon. Participants heard from three keynoters and attended workshops on topics including free-roaming bison in Montana, private-public land exchanges and sage grouse.”
Ferguson, Mike. Daily Inter Lake News 19 August 2014.