Landowner in Texas loses Keystone case
Judge rules pipeline builder can use eminent domain
A Texas rebellion over private property rights and a major new oil pipeline was dealt a setback by a judge, who ruled that the Canadian firm TransCanada had the right to use the power of eminent domain to run its Keystone XL pipeline across a landowner’s property.
The ruling in Paris, Texas, from Lamar County Court-at-Law Judge Bill Harris – sent in a few terse words from his iPhone – was a blow to the unlikely coalition of environmentalists, ranchers and tea party activists who have mounted a grass-roots challenge against the pipeline in a state traditionally friendly to oil and gas projects.
The judge’s brief ruling effectively recognizes what is known as common carrier status for the Keystone XL project and allows TransCanada to proceed with acquiring an easement across ranch manager Julia Trigg Crawford’s property.
Harris apparently rejected landowners’ arguments that under the definition of “common carrier,” TransCanada should have to prove in detail that the pipeline would be generally available to all oil shippers, not just a few private companies.
Opponents argue that the Keystone XL pipeline, intended to eventually carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, is primarily designed to benefit the Canadian company and presents a potential environmental hazard for landowners along the route.
“This case has uncovered the craziness and the inequities that are in our current, rubber-stamp eminent domain process,” Crawford said in an interview Thursday.
“What this means is that the lowest-level court has chosen to rule in TransCanada’s favor with a summary judgment, and I find it interesting that it was a 15-word ruling sent from his iPhone,” she said. “We’ve been in court with thousands of pages of documents and testimony and witnesses and hearings, and it comes down to 15 words on an email from his phone.”
Crawford said she and her family had not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling.
TransCanada, which already has begun construction in Lamar County on the southern portion of the pipeline, has said it was following the provisions of Texas law, under which pipeline companies apply for common carrier status through the state.
“This ruling reaffirms that TransCanada has, and continues, to follow all state and federal laws and regulations as we move forward with the construction of the Gulf Coast project,” company spokesman Shawn Howard said in a statement.