[jim_trent]

People who don’t want power lines are depriving OTHER people of electricity. Why shouldn’t they share the misery?

BTW, I have worked in Civil Engineering for 40 years and EVERY eminent domain case I have been involved in has paid full market value OR MORE. Any implication in the story that the land was being taken without compensation is bullsh*t.

[seemoAR]

I see you wrote that land being taken without compensation is _______. Would you be happy if I take something of yours that is very important to you and out of the goodness of my heart, pay you 50% of its fair market value?. That happened to several of my neighbors. One neighbor even asked the county to buy land anywhere locally and they would trade even. The county man left in a very agitated state of mind. He knew land sold for a lot more than what was being offered. The case went to court and the county had to pay close to fair market value for the land. Of course the shysters got a large chunk of the money.

[slowhandluke]

Well, it's obvious you don't work in New Jersey. We lost a governor just after a scandal arose where he tried to extort money from a landowner who was previously offered pennies on the dollar for his land. You probably don't remember the case, as the Gov in question dodged the whole felony issue by claiming to be gay and implying that it meant he was unfit for office - so he resigned.

New Jersey being what it is, the whole extortion thing just sort of went away. I don't remember what the landowner got. But I really doubt that this Governor tried this trick out of the blue, without knowing how often it had worked on smaller landowners by less prominent politicians.