Posted on 02/19/2014 7:16:53 PM PST by Olog-hai
A Nebraska court on Wednesday voided the governor’s decision to allow the Keystone XL pipeline to pass through the Midwestern state, creating another snag for the controversial project to link Canada’s oil sands with refineries in Texas.
Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman last year supported legislation that cleared the way for TransCanada Corp’s $5.4 billion pipeline to cross parts of his state.
But some landowners objected to the legislation, saying it disregarded their property rights.
On Wednesday, the District Court of Lancaster County sided with landowners, a move that makes inevitable additional months of delay to the project, already more than five years in the planning. …
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
>> some landowners objected to the legislation, saying it disregarded their property rights.
Buy ‘em out. Top dollar. Problem solved.
Ah yes. Eminent domain.
That was the idea.
Gas and oil are fungible.
NIMBYs, their “gentrification” and economic collapse.
>> Eminent domain.
That’s not exactly what I had in mind; at least not to start.
If you can be a little flexible with routing, you WILL find landowners who WILL let you put a pipeline on their property, if you make it attractive.
Happens all the time in Texas.
I’m not talking about through downtown Omaha. I’m talking about rural areas.
And you know what? The stickiest landowners aren’t the thousand plus acre parcels... it’s the 50 acre types.
So you just buy the whole thing. Myself, I’m on about that size parcel and for the “going rate” for a lease I most certainly would not allow a pipeline (my neighbor would, though). But if you gave me (say) five times the going rate, I very well might. Or if you simply BOUGHT my place for (say) three to five times the typical price, I’d probably cave. And because it’s a small parcel, even five times the going rate is chump change to these guys.
Of course, you’d have to do it carefully... so the thousand acre guy doesn’t demand a similar king’s ransom.
But landmen and pipeline negotiators do this kind of thing ALL THE TIME. How do you think Texas gets criss-crossed with pipelines from its oilfields?
And... once you’re offering, like, ten times the typical land value and stubborn landowners won’t cave... maybe THEN you use eminent domain. But only then.
Keeping our domestic energy production muscular is a national defense imperative. Eminent domain has been used (or misused) for much less important stuff than that.
Just my 2c, and I confess I am no expert in the particulars of a pipeline of the Keystone scale.
FRegards
When did the dictator approve the construction of this?
The dictator is still waffling.
What should even be controversial about this? It’s a real infrastructure project in one of the safest areas on the planet for a pipeline to be built.
There was a case a short time ago in the socialist republic of the state of Connecticut where the government wanted to take private property for a mall and all kinds of great development,it was in New London Connecticut,the private home owners were told to go to hell by the courts in that one,and guess what the homes were taken and demolished and the development? Gone zero nada,NONE,so those who say the judge here was right maybe so,but it would be nice if these asses would at least be consistent
Why can’t the pipeline be built without government intervention? The best railroad in the US was built without government funding. The worst were built with it. This is crony capitalism all the way.
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