Hill Country landowners lose legal fight over $2 billion gas pipeline

[TexasTowelie]

A legal challenge by Texas Hill Country landowners to a proposed natural gas pipeline through the backyards of their multimillion-dollar rural properties has failed.

State District Judge Lora Livingston in Travis County issued a ruling Tuesday dismissing the homeowners’ lawsuit. The decision clears the way for Houston-based energy company Kinder Morgan to exercise eminent domain powers and begin construction on the $2 billion Permian Highway Pipeline Project.

The pipeline will bring natural gas from the Permian Basin in West Texas to a growing market along the Gulf Coast in the Houston area. The company is set to begin construction this fall and have the pipeline operating by late next year.

The homeowners from Gillespie, Blanco, Hays and Caldwell counties flooded Livingston’s courtroom last month to oppose the proposed route for the 42-inch steel pipeline. They expressed safety concerns and said the threat of an explosion also will greatly lower their property values.

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190626/hill-country-landowners-lose-legal-fight-over-2-billion-gas-pipeline

[walkingman]

1. Remember this when you hear your elected officials spout that crap about believing in

private property rights. Allowing for-profit corps the power of eminent domain is simply wrong.

[walkingman]

3. Just to show the hypocrisy of the State of Texas - see the Judge's comments below

"The Court is concerned with a power that, when exercised by a governmental entity, must be done in the harsh light of public scrutiny of open meetings and public notices, but, when exercised by a private entity, may be determined without public notice by a select few driven primarily by their financial gain," Judge Livingston wrote. "However, the Court must also be conscious of its role to apply the law and not dictate the policy of the state."

https://www.kut.org/post/judge-clears-path-kinder-morgans-pipeline-through-texas-hill-country

[watoos]

2. Don't mess with Texas

gas companies.

[argyl]

4. The City of Denton, Texas approved a ban on fracking in its city limits.

This was in November of 2014. By early summer of 2015 a bill preempting local authorities from imposing bans on various energy developments, fracking included, was passed by the legislature.Gov. Greg Abbott quickly signed it into law.

Great day for the oil and gas industry; a lousy day for democracy.

[Bayard]

5. I never have understood

How eminent domain can apply to private, profit-driven companies. This one can't even be considered for the good of the public, like a road might be.