Category Archives: Eminent Domain

Eminent Domain for the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

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If you’ve wondered what will happen if you refuse to work with one of the big pipeline companies, here’s the preview.

The Rover Pipeline is just like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and the Mountaineer Xpress pipeline in that they all have eminent domain rights.

Once they get eminent domain rights, your fight is pretty much over.

The judge hearing the Rover Pipeline cases ruled that the Rover Pipeline gets immediate possession of the route that it wants.

Yep.  You read that right.  Immediate possession.  Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

At this point, the pipeline company is using all the might and power of the federal government to take private property and give it to a private company.  It’s no longer a friendly conversation about where the pipeline should go and how much money it’s worth.

Speaking of which, the judge hasn’t ruled on how much money the landowners will get.  We’ll be watching closely for that news.

More importantly, we’ll be watching to see what kind of changes the judge allows to the company’s standard easement agreement.

Reading the linked article is frustrating.  The landowners are frustrated because the Rover Pipeline didn’t work with them — didn’t address the unique needs of the owners and their properties.  That’s justifiable.  The way these pipeline companies have been operating has been ridiculous.

I understand the importance of moving natural gas from here to there.  I think it’s more important to actually work out agreements with landowners.

FERC Won’t Stop the Pipelines, but the States Might

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There are several very big pipelines that are proposed for West Virginia, including the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Mountaineer Xpress, and others.  There’s a lot of debate over whether these pipelines are good, with most of the lines being drawn over environmental/economic arguments.  Basically, if the environment is more important to you, then you oppose the pipelines and if the economy is more important to you then you support the pipelines.

If you oppose the pipelines, then this article in the Register Herald holds a tasty tidbit for your consumption.

Autumn Crowe with the West Virginia Rivers Coalition said that even if the FERC green lights [the pipeline], if West Virginia fails to issue one of the permits, the project comes to a halt.

That’s something I had not realized until now, and I think a lot of other people hadn’t realized, either.

When I first started researching the pipelines it took about two seconds to discover that they would have the power of federal eminent domain.  In other words, once the FERC gave permission for the project to proceed, any property the pipeline wanted to cross automatically and immediately belonged to them.

I didn’t think there was any way to stop that from happening.

FERC, after all, has only turned down a small handful of projects in its 39 years of existence.  One Atlantic Coast Pipeline official I talked to said only four.

However, if you can show that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection shouldn’t issue one of the permits that the pipeline requires, it seems you can actually stop the process.

As I have become more opposed to the pipeline (not on environmental grounds) this gives me and my clients some hope.

Comment Time on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

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If anyone would like to comment to the FERC about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, now is the time to do so.  My comments would focus on opposition to the use of eminent domain and on the safety concerns I have recently found.  Others are concerned about damage to the immediate environment around the pipeline and the trickle down effects on global warming.  Some few are concerned that we are overbuilding pipeline infrastructure.  Whatever your concern, now is the time to voice your opinion.

The link to use when filing your opinion is:

https://ferconline.ferc.gov/QuickComment.aspx

Good luck!  Regardless of the outcome lets be grateful we live in a place where we can at least voice an opinion.

Legislative Update, March 1, 2016

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We may be a day early to report the death of this year’s forced pooling bill, but the rumors coming out of Charleston and the news articles we’ve read sound promising.  Good for McGeehan and everyone else who has worked to defeat this bill.  Maybe next year they’ll come up with something that makes it easier for oil and gas companies to put together drilling units, but without taking away private property rights.  Eminent domain is one of a few things the Founding Fathers got wrong.

The other good thing we’ve seen is that the bill which would have allowed pipeline companies to enter private property without permission if they were surveying for a proposed pipeline easement has been killed.  The Senate voted it down by a margin of 2-1.  Those are good numbers against a bad bill.

 

West Virginia Forced Pooling: Woody Ireland’s Arguments in Favor

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Woody Ireleand has been interviewed again for an article in the Wheeling Intelligencer.  The Forced Pooling legislation that he is championing has improved over the years, but it’s never going to overcome the one argument that is foremost in my mind: forcing someone to sell or use their land is not right, even when it’s lawful.

West Virginia Landowners Win Court Case Against Mountain Valley Pipeline

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Judge Irons in Monroe County, WV ruled yesterday that the surveyors that the Mountain Valley Pipeline has been sending out do not have the ability to enter your land without permission.  The will be considered trespassers.

I think this is exactly what West Virginia law says, and I think the judge got it exactly right.

Read more about it here.

Forced Pooling is not Dead in West Virginia

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forced_pooling_cartoon

The Joint Standing Committee on Energy is meeting today in the House Chamber down in Charleston.  On the agenda, “Study of unitization of interests in horizontal well drilling units.”  Also, presentations from WVONGA, WVROA, Joe Hatton who is an Agribusinessman, and a Study of Royalty Payments by Kevin Ellis from Antero Resources.  Doesn’t look like the opposition to forced pooling was invited today.

Oh, there’s also Miscellaneous Business on the agenda.

Time to start calling legislators again, it seems.

While we’re fans of development, we’re not fans of eminent domain being used to force leases onto West Virginia mineral and surface owners.  It’s just not right.

Kentucky Pipeline Project Doesn’t Get Eminent Domain (for now)

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no-eminent-domainThe Bluegrass Pipeline has been trying to use eminent domain in Kentucky.  The Court of Appeals said they couldn’t.  Read about it here.

The Kentucky Supreme Court has not heard the case yet, so the final decision could be different.  However, when both the Circuit Court and the Appeals Court agree, you’re less likely to find that the Supreme Court makes a different decision.  It’s not conclusive, but it’s indicative.

West Virginians who are concerned about the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline (and a few other projects) should take note of this decision.  Kentucky’s eminent domain laws are a little different from ours, but the language of the decision sounds like language I could see a West Virginia court drafting to explain our eminent domain laws and their interpretation.  For those of us who are not fans of how eminent domain is being abused, this is good news.