State: Pipeline Company Does Not Have Right of Eminent Domain

Not that Len Peters knows his ass from a hole in the ground about pipelines, toxic waste, environmental protection or eminent domain, but a member of Beshear's administration rejecting a corporate argument in front of a legislative committee is a positive sign.

Greg Kocher at the Herald:

The companies that propose to build an underground natural gas liquids pipeline across Kentucky do not have the power to condemn properties to gain easements, State Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Len Peters told a legislative committee Thursday.

Peters said he asked the cabinet's legal counsel to investigate whether the power of eminent domain — the authority to condemn private property for public use — extends to the pipeline companies.

"Based on this research relative to federal law and statutes relative to how natural gas liquids pipelines are regulated, they do not see how eminent domain can be invoked," Peters told the Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Environment.

That declaration was met with applause from landowners who packed the Capitol Annex committee room with a capacity of 250 people. Forty more people were in an overflow room.

Oklahoma-based Williams Co. and Houston-based Boardwalk Pipeline Partners want to transport flammable natural gas liquids from drilling zones in Pennsylvania through West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.

Right through the heart of Bluegrass Country, where the tiniest leak into the karst bedrock can contaminate miles of groundwater in a matter of hours, delivering a killing blow to the Commonwealth's bourbon, horse and tourism industries.


But that didn't stop company officials from repeating the lies about safety and jobs that they have delivered at multiple "open houses" throughout the region, even denying they had begun negotiating with landowners while those very landowners sat behind them booing and hissing.

This battle has just started. It's going to take concerted effort through the General Assembly - the members of which are drooling at the thought of bribes campaign contributions from the pipeline company - and the courts to stop the Bluegrass Pipeline.