Bluegrass NGL Pipeline Hits Brick Wall in the Bluegrass State Below is an article from, Marcellus Drilling News, which is a pro drilling news site. As it turns out, MDN suggests eminent domain should NOT be invoked in this instance. Excerpt: "We’ve long held the view that eminent domain for pipelines is not a good thing. Better to make it worth a landowner’s while ($$) or simply route around a landowner if you can’t. There may be times when it’s absolutely necessary to use eminent domain–but the Bluegrass Pipeline is not one of them." In a touch of irony, the Bluegrass Pipeline–a proposed new natural gas liquids (NGL) pipeline that will stretch from the Utica/Marcellus region all the way to the Gulf Coast (see Williams, Boardwalk Announce Marcellus-to-Gulf Coast NGL Pipeline)–has hit a brick wall in the Bluegrass State–Kentucky. Williams and Boardwalk Pipeline, co-owners of the project, maintain that because the Bluegrass Pipeline is an interstate pipeline they can (if need be) invoke eminent domain to force landowners to let them lay the pipeline under their property. Kentucky Energy Secretary Len Peters says not so fast. His team of legal beagles has researched it and they say the Bluegrass Pipeline does not have eminent domain status in the Bluegrass State. We see a legal show-down on the horizon… A private company that wants to build a pipeline to carry natural gas liquids across Kentucky can’t use eminent domain to obtain the right of way, a ranking state official said Thursday. Kentucky Energy Secretary Len Peters told a legislative committee that his legal staff, after careful analysis, reached that conclusion regarding the proposed Bluegrass Pipeline project, which he described as “one of the most difficult and controversial issues that we have faced in the commonwealth in quite some time.” “Based on this research, relative to federal law and statutes and how natural gas liquid pipelines are regulated, they do not see how eminent domain can be invoked,” Peters said. The position differs from that of company executives who insisted Thursday that the companies do have authority to use eminent domain to obtain right of way if landowners are unwilling to cooperate. The Bluegrass Pipeline, being built by Williams Co. of Oklahoma and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners of Texas, would cross northern and central Kentucky, carrying a liquid byproduct of the natural gas refining process that’s used to make plastics, medical supplies and carpet, among other products. Land owners and environmental activists have fought furiously against the pipeline, citing concerns about potential leaks. The Bluegrass Pipeline controversy is an extension of an environmental debate raging in several states over fracking, a process in which water and sand are injected into underground shale to push out oil and gas. The flammable liquids that would travel through the Kentucky pipeline would come from fracking sites in the Marcellus and Utica shale gas areas in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Boardwalk general counsel Mike McMahon said the companies “have not landed on a precise route” for the pipeline in Kentucky, though he said work is under way to do that.* MDN’s view: We’ve long held the view that eminent domain for pipelines is not a good thing. Better to make it worth a landowner’s while ($$) or simply route around a landowner if you can’t. There may be times when it’s absolutely necessary to use eminent domain–but the Bluegrass Pipeline is not one of them. * AP/Oklahoma City (OK) The Oklahoman (Sep 5, 2013) newsok/eminent-domain-contested-for-proposed-pipeline/article/feed/587215 marcellusdrilling/2013/09/bluegrass-ngl-pipeline-hits-brick-wall-in-the-bluegrass-state/
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 12:59:51 +0000
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