Tell Your Kentucky Legislators to Support These Bills on the Bluegrass Pipeline

Tell your state senator to co-sponsor Bill Request 129 by Senator Jimmy Higdon, and your state representative to co-sponsor Bill Request 198 by Rep. David Floyd. To find your legislators and get email addresses and phone numbers for them, go to http://lrc.ky.gov.

These bills don't stop the Bluegrass Pipeline in its tracks, but they establish rules to help prevent catastrophes and protect landowners.

From WDRB:

Two Kentucky lawmakers have pre-filed bills for next year's General Assembly that they say would help protect property owners from having their land seized for the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline.

Republican State Sen. Jimmy Higdon of Lebanon and Rep. David Floyd of Bardstown pre-filed measures Thursday specifying that developers of oil and gas pipeline projects would be eligible to condemn land only if they are regulated by the Public Service Commission.

Floyd said in a prepared statement that while he supports business and industry, the rights of landowners must be preserved.

"I might understand why some want to grant easement for the Bluegrass Pipeline Project through their land, but I cannot fathom the argument that those who want to protect their property must yield to government force for the benefit of a private company," Floyd said. "The taking of private property in Kentucky must be rare, and then only for public use."

Higdon said in an interview that he and Floyd are at "ground zero" of the proposal to build an underground pipeline that would transport liquid natural gas through Kentucky along a route stretching from Pennsylvania to the Gulf of Mexico.

The pipeline would cut through 13 Kentucky counties, including Nelson, which both Higdon and Floyd represent.

"We make it very clear that if you're a pipeline and you don't have oversight by the Public Service Commission, then you don't qualify for eminent domain. You can't have it both ways," Higdon said.

The pipeline isn't a regulated utility, according to the Kentucky Resources Council.