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donnay
08-23-2012, 09:25 PM
Oil and Gas Companies Can Take Your Land

Alison K. Grass
Food & Water Watch (http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/328-121/13067-oil-and-gas-companies-can-take-your-land)
Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:58 CDT

No Person Shall Be Deprived of Life, Liberty or Property... Unless the Oil and Gas Industry Says So.

Eminent domain, the government's right to condemn (or take) private land for "public use," has at times been a highly contentious topic because it can displace people from their homes to make way for construction of different projects, like highways or roads, civic buildings and other types of public infrastructure. However, what some may not realize is that several states have granted eminent domain authority to certain private entities, including oil and gas companies. These companies are using it as a tool to seize private land, which increases profits and benefits their wallets.

According to the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment, in order to pursue eminent domain, the land must be taken for "public use" and the private property owners must receive "just compensation."

No person shall be . . . deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Traditionally, the "public use" provision referred to projects like roads, schools, parks and other public facilities that could be directly used by all. However, the meaning of "public use" has been loosely interpreted in recent years.

The controversial Kelo v. City of New London (2005) is credited with broadening the interpretation of "public use." In this case, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of New London, deciding that the city could take private property and give it to another private entity for "economic development." The Court decided that this met the "public use" provision of the Fifth Amendment. But despite taking the land and spending millions of taxpayer dollars on the proposed project, the plan never came to fruition and nothing was constructed.

Now it seems that the oil and gas industry is capitalizing on this this precedent-setting case.

A University of Minnesota Law professor describes this trend: "in many natural resource-rich areas of the country, however, the knock on the door is less likely to come from a government official and much more likely to come from a mining, oil, or gas company representative."

The state legislature of North Carolina recently legalized fracking. Yet, what some residents may not know is that North Carolina's eminent domain law allows some private entities to take private property for certain uses. This includes oil and gas companies who have been given the right to condemn land and construct pipelines for natural gas transportation. As a supervising attorney at the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic points out, there could be even bigger implications. "If private companies engaged in these activities are designated as 'public enterprises,' then they may be able to take private property for purposes far beyond that of laying pipelines."

In July, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court ruled that provisions in Act 13, (which revised the Oil and Gas Act of 1984), aiming to prevent local zoning rules for gas drilling and fracking were unconstitutional. However the Court didn't rule on the topic of eminent domain. This leaves open the possibility that oil and gas companies could pursue this as a method to take people's land.

Meanwhile in Texas, TransCanada, the company that wants to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, is trying to grab private property from a small town, claiming they have eminent domain rights-and some residents are outraged.

The Kelo case broadened the interpretation of the "public use." The city of New London took land from a private property owner so that they could give it to a private entity in the name of "economic development." Unfortunately, oil and gas companies will now have this card to play when justifying land grabs.

Mundane
08-23-2012, 10:16 PM
Meanwhile in Texas, TransCanada, the company that wants to build the Keystone XL Pipeline, is trying to grab private property from a small town, claiming they have eminent domain rights-and some residents are outraged.

The Kelo case broadened the interpretation of the "public use." The city of New London took land from a private property owner so that they could give it to a private entity in the name of "economic development." Unfortunately, oil and gas companies will now have this card to play when justifying land grabs.

That's ironic because TransCanada would never be able to do that in Canada. Worst case scenario is the Canadian government could grant the oil company "right of entry" to put the pipeline through a property owner's land, but they would never be able to take ownership of that private land against the property owner's will.

bunklocoempire
08-23-2012, 11:35 PM
And geothermal companies as well via government.

Any theft really is encouraged and helped along via government though ain't it?

Icymudpuppy
08-24-2012, 08:40 AM
So, will we lose the word "Railroaded" for "Mineralled"

sparebulb
08-24-2012, 09:03 AM
Good topic. This is one that is affecting me right now.

Here is a disturbing bit of news.

http://thesouthern.com/news/local/article_967974b0-31de-11e1-811e-001871e3ce6c.html



Fracking could arrive by June
Print
December 29, 2011 6:00 am • BY SCOTT FITZGERALD, The Southern
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Drill site selection for oil and natural gas exploration within 70,000 Saline County acres could begin in June, said the owner of a Denver-based energy research group that has been purchasing mineral rights leases throughout Southern Illinois.

"We are mainly interested in oil," said Jack Overstreet, owner of Next Energy LLC that makes investments by acquiring mineral rights leases and preparing geology reports to determine what exploration operator is best suited for the job.

The upcoming project also will entail natural gas extraction with the possibility of hooking into current interstate gas lines stretching from East Texas natural gas fields to points along the east coast.

Work is continuing to get land abstracts up-to-date and working with Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Overstreet said.

The private company's work to acquire mineral rights leases required a Saline County judge's ruling a few days before Christmas that allowed Next Energy to lease mineral rights from owners without their consent.

Overstreet said the company utilized an Illinois statute that was designed to help identify heirs and mineral rights owners by allowing county courts to appoint local trustees who can open escrow accounts and act as conservators for those parties.

The company had compiled a list about 1,500 mineral rights owners within the 70,000 acres and were able to track down about 100 of them to get lease agreements, Overstreet said.

Mineral rights owners get lease bonus payments and, if oil is produced, they share in the profits or royalties. Land owners where drilling occurs will get monetary compensation by way of surface damage agreements, Overstreet said.

Successful oil production will enhance the tax base for counties and the state. The work will create jobs and local service compa-nies would be hired, he said.

"There is pretty good talent pool in the way of area service companies," said Overstreet who was raised in Mount Vernon and worked with area oil and gas companies when he was a teenager.

A horizontal drilling method would be used to produce oil. Natural gas extraction would be aided in its extraction through a method known as fracking which involves pumping water, sand and chemicals to crack rock to allow recovery of gas trapped in the rock.

"There has been very little evidence of contamination from that technology," Overstreet said about arguments against fracking.

The dispute

Fracking is not without controversy. It began getting national attention after the release of the documentary "Gasland" in which filmmaker Josh Fox traveled to 32 states and met with residents whose communities were affected by fracking operations. In a dramatic illustration of contaminated drinking water, the film shows tap water that can be lit on fire.

Industry officials claim the documentary is sensational and since its release have spent time debating what the documentary pre-sented as facts about fracking.

Sam Stearns, public education coordinator for Friends of Bell Smith Springs, has been working to get the word out about the risks associated with fracking.

"At every stage of the process there is great potential for health hazards created by the drilling and fracking process," Stearns told The Southern Illinoisan in an earlier interview.

He said among the risks are mixing chemicals with the water, creating mini-earthquakes during the moment of fracking, the po-tential for the chemical-water mix to seep into water tables and the potential leak of the pipeline once a well is producing.

Stearns said fracking fluid that is pumped out after use can be stored in containment basins where the water is evaporated; leaving concentrated liquid chemicals to dispose of. Another method involves evaporation until only a chemical powder is left, which he said could become windblown and spread from the containment site.

"It's just another avenue for harmful pollution that occurs as part of the process," he said. "People need to consider the whole process not just the fracking."

- The Southern's Stephen Rickerl contributed to this report.

scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com

618-351-507

Acala
08-24-2012, 09:17 AM
Nobody should have eminent domain power.