At first reading I’m with the landowners on this one.
Don’t worry, our elected officials will protect us. Even against oil or gas corporations.
Webster County. Folks might get shot there.
My default is to be with the homeowners on this.
If the pipeline company does not have the power of condemnation, it’s not likely they will succeed.
There’s no reason eminent domain should ever be able to be used by a private company. The only time it has any kind of validity is for national defense, and that’s a high bar to meet.
You live in West Virginia. Sell them the mineral rights, they say, and they tell you that all they are going to do is mine a little coal, they won’t disturb you in any way. Then comes the sheriff and some deputies onto your property to evict you from your land because your farm and house sit in the path of the only reasonable spot for railway access to the main seam.
In the end, you and your family and worldly possessions are in a horse-drawn wagon headed for Missouri because its relatively flat and you figure that you won’t ever have to be bothered again with coal companies digging up your property.
A gas line would be a little more quiet, but its still the principle of the thing.
The landowners may want to point to
Landowners vs. Transcanada keystone pipline, LP, and Andrew Craig.
Well, regarding permission to survey.
Since the preliminary survey on Google Earth, you need to follow up on the ground. Access will cost you $5 per lineal foot