TX All About Property Rights Except If Pipelines Cross Your Land As Hotly Debated Bills Show

Lawmakers, lobbyists and landowners sparred at a Capitol committee hearing on Thursday over a batch of bills designed to protect property owners whose land may be seized by private companies to build oil and gas pipelines. A bipartisan — though largely Republican — group of House and Senate legislators whose districts have been targeted for pipeline construction amid a historic oil and gas boom have proposed several measures this year aimed at helping landowners and local officials negotiate with deep-pocketed energy companies eager to move fossil fuels to processing and export facilities on the Gulf Coast.

The reform push has put some Republicans at odds with an industry they typically champion — and one that donates significant dollars to their political campaigns — as well as members of their own party. Perhaps the most controversial legislation — proposed by Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham — would require companies to include specific provisions in agreements with landowners explaining exactly where they plan to construct pipelines and a promise that they will repair fences, gates or other infrastructure if they damage them.

Senate Bill 421 — one of 11 eminent domain-related bills that the House Land and Resource Management Committee considered on Thursday — also would require private companies to offer to pay landowners fair market value and to hold public meetings if they plan to seize 25 or more tracts of land.

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Dave Conover, vice president of government relations at pipeline giant Kinder Morgan, whose Permian Highway Pipeline Project has sparked fervent protests in the Hill County, said he feared that environmentalists would use the new measures to thwart projects altogether and that he wanted to see provisions added to the bill that would prevent those tactics. "This debate isn't about pipelines versus landowners; it's about preventing private stonewalling from killing public benefits," he said. He also expressed concern about a requirement in SB 421 that every landowner along a pipeline's route agree to the sale of a pipeline, saying "We cannot give an individual landowner a veto over the potential sale of a billion-dollar asset."

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https://www.texastribune.org/2019/04/25/texas-house-panel-considers-controversial-eminent-domain-reforms/