Property owners protest pipeline procurement process
Posted May 2, 2019 12:20:20 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — A Virginia-based legal group is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to end what it says has become an abuse of eminent domain by companies that build natural-gas pipelines.
Robert McNamara is a lawyer for The Institute for Justice, a libertarian public interest law firm in Arlington. He says courts are increasingly allowing pipeline companies to defer payments to landowners whose property is condemned. The institute argues that the process deprives landowners of the leverage to negotiate their property’s value.
The Institute is representing Gary Erb of Conestoga Township, Pennsylvania, one of the plaintiffs. He is still awaiting payment for 6 acres (2.4 hectares) that were taken from him starting in 2017. He says the pipeline construction left an ugly scar on his 72-acre (30-hectare) homestead.
The pipeline company says it fairly negotiates prices with landowners.
Matthew Barakat, The Associated Press
