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Tag Archives: Keystone XL

With the Keystone decision looming, will the President propose a quid pro quo?

03 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by texascondemnation in Pipelines, Politics

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Environmentalists, Keystone XL, New York Times, Pipelines, politics, President Obama, TransCanada

To many, the ultimate approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project is inevitable. Environmentalists and oil and gas advocates have long been engaged in a heated debate that has narrowed its focus to TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline.

Here are a few of President Obama’s options: a) approve the pipeline and offer an energy-efficient tax incentive or alternative energy goal proposal for the future; b) approve the pipeline and disregard the cries of environmentalists; c) strike the pipeline and disregard upset oil and gas investors that are likely to pursue the pipeline’s construction anyways; d) strike the pipeline and offer some kind of proposal to alleviate what to advocates of traditional energy forms would seem like an utter crisis; e) indefinitely postpone the decision entirely. The problem with creating an additional proposal to his decision to strike or approve the pipeline is that it would require approval from Congress, which we all know has been facing much difficulty seeing eye to eye. Regardless of the path President Obama chooses, someone is bound to be upset; such is the nature of dramatic once-in-a-term decisions like this. Because of the opportunity’s rarity, the decision to keep or remove the contentious pipeline will leave a lasting impact on how the Obama legacy will be perceived. What is left undeciphered now is through which lens the President’s term will be remembered – will he be envisioned as the environmental advocate or the oil and gas subjugate?

To read about additional possible outcomes of this contentious debate, please click here.

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Arkansas Pipeline Rupture Amplifies Keystone Opponents’ Arguments

08 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by texascondemnation in Pipelines

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Arkansas, ExxonMobil, Housing, Keystone XL, Pegasus, Pipelines, property rights, property value, TransCanada, USA Today

In a small town outside of Little Rock, Arkansas, ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline ruptured over 19,000 barrels of a mixture of Canadian crude oil and water. More than twenty residents of the town were forced to evacuate from their homes, and according to USA Today, they may be forced to refrain from reentering their homes for another month. See below for what an oil spill might look like in your backyard. Property owners who recently put their home up for sale rightly worry about a decline in market value due to the spill. About a mile from the location of the spill is Lake Conway, just three miles north of the Arkansas River. While ExxonMobil claims the oil did not flow into these bodies of water, some residents saw the oil spilling into storm drains on the street.

No doubt, the flames of those opposing the contentious Keystone XL Pipeline have been fanned, creating worry and discomfort about the installation of a pipeline intended to transfer 800,000 barrels of Canadian crude oil across the nation. Adding to the growing list of unexpected oil spills in Kalamazoo and Yellowstone makes the TransCanada’s claims in favor of the security of the Keystone XL Pipeline seems doubtful.

Will the current administration rule in favor of landowners or forsake the risks of property damage for industrial capital? The Globe and Mail says the President is expected to make a decision this summer. For now, we can only wait.

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Business Keystone XL foes say fed study should consider climate effects

24 Monday Dec 2012

Posted by texascondemnation in Pipelines, Property Rights

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Condemnation, Eminent Domain, Keystone XL, oil, Pipelines, property rights, tar sands, Texas, TransCanada

The Keystone line continues to be a political lighting rod after the presidential election. While the Federal emission challenges demonstrate yet another reason for the line’s harmful effects, the real issue will be whether Keystone – aka Seaway in Texas – will stop offering below market values to property owners. The product they are flowing through the line will most certainly cause future buyers to have concerns with the property impacted by the line.

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A Split Decision – Two Sides of the Same Pipeline

05 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by texascondemnation in Pipelines, Property Rights

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East Texas, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Gabe Cordova, Keystone XL, Marshall Treadwell, pipeline leak, Pipelines, property rights, texas eminent domain, TransCanada

When it comes to the construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL Pipeline in East Texas, landowners have a split opinion. While people like Gabe Cordova recognize the dangers in the type of oil proposed to be transferred through the pipeline in his backyard, there are others like Marshall Treadwell who are not bothered by the presence of another pipeline on their land through an existing energy carrier. So is it resignation that allows for this acceptance? As a landowner, you have the right to fight back and attain just compensation in the Texas eminent domain process. TransCanada may offer a few thousand for your land, but is that enough to compensate for the continuous and daily fear of the potential hazards a pipeline transporting oil from tar sands? A 2010 crude oil pipeline leak in Michigan cost over $800 million to clean up, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, more than 300 people faced health problems because of this same leak. TransCanada may claim its new pipeline is less likely to leak, but even the printer in your office stops working just when you least expect it. There will always be two sides to an issue; it’s whether you’ve asked all of the right questions that will determine on which side you stand.

To read more about Cordova and Treadwell, visit here..

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Inside Out: A New Way of Looking at the 2012 Presidential Debate

04 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by texascondemnation in Politics

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2012, alternative energy, Blog, Condemnation, debate, elections, Eminent Domain, GOP, health care policies, Johns Marrs Ellis & Hodge, Keystone pipeline, Keystone XL, News, Obama, oil and gas, Opinion, Pipelines, politics, presidential debate, property rights, Romney, Texas Condemnation, TransCanada, trickle down effect

“All of the increase in natural gas and oil has happened on private land, not on government land. On government land [Obama’s] administration has cut the number of permits and licenses in half. If I’m president, I’ll double them and bring the oil offshore from Alaska and I’d bring that pipeline in from Canada … I want to make America, North America, energy independent so we can create jobs.” Among the many contentious points of discussion during last night’s presidential debate was TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline. Obviously, a number of questions and criticisms arise in response to last night’s debate on these issues.

However, in speaking for or against these issues of progress versus sustainability, one particular player in the game was left unnoticed: the landowners. Not once in the debate did either Governor Romney or President Obama mention the property rights of land and business owners who face the real consequences of these projects. Furthermore, only a select few social media outlets even mention this controversial subject. Instead, we speak of tax reforms and the structure of the economy. We speak of health care and education. Don’t get me wrong; all of these issues are important, but how does anyone successfully solve a problem by looking at it only from the outside in? Our political leaders need to address the issues that concern our nation by pressing past the barriers of the outside perspective. Looking inside out, we find how cuts or increases in taxes can affect asset value, interest rates, and incentives to invest. We see how the trickle-down effect of the economy never reaches the average middle class landowner. Changes in health care policies may affect how landowners respond to oil spills, like the 12 suffered by Keystone XL just last year.

There is no right way to make policies, but there is a way to ensure the basic rights of property owners. The answer is a middle ground. We must abandon partisan bias and focus on the real issues at hand with an eye that sees from the inside out rather than the outside in. In the end, it is the landowners’ rights that must be protected.

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Whose Land Is It Anyway? – A Rising Tide of Eminent Domain Cases in Texas

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by texascondemnation in Pipelines, Politics, Property Rights

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2012, alternative energy, Austin condemnation, Austin eminent domain lawyer, Condemnation, Eminent Domain, Houston condemnation, Houston eminent domain lawyer, Johns Marrs Ellis & Hodge, Keystone XL, Obama, oil and gas, property rights, Romney, Texas, Texas Condemnation, Texas condemnation lawyer, Texas eminent domain lawyer, TransCanada

Julia Trigg Crawford, a Northeast Texas farmer, and numerous landowners across Texas continue to fight for their property rights despite many losses. But what is the reason behind this sudden surge of condemnation cases? The first reason is the economy, the second is demographics. More and more monetary energy is directed towards the development of oil and gas across the state, mostly due to a boom in hydraulic fracturing. The growing population of Texas does not alleviate the problem either. As the issue gains a greater spotlight, so do the opposing views on the bigger question of the pros and cons of developmental progress in the United States. President Obama along with many environmentalists sway towards the cultivation of wind and solar energy, an investment in land safety. GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the majority of privately owned oil and gas corporations find investing in the economy to be of greater value. The question is not who is right, but how to find a middle ground so that property owners can successfully maintain their land rights.

You can read more about this story at MySanAntonio or the Stateman.

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texascondemnation

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Luke Ellis and Justin Hodge are partners with Marrs Ellis & Hodge LLP. Justin heads the firm's eminent domain practice in the Houston office. Luke heads the firm's eminent domain practice in the Austin office. Luke Ellis is widely recognized as one of Texas’s top young lawyers—and one of the top lawyers of any age practicing in the area of eminent domain. Mr. Ellis has broad experience and has enjoyed success in many types of civil litigation. Justin Hodge is a trial lawyer who represents Texas landowners in condemnation, eminent-domain, and real-estate lawsuits. He represents landowners in condemnation proceedings, not the governmental authorities or private companies taking property. Mr. Hodge has handled complex condemnation and eminent-domain cases throughout the State of Texas. If you have questions about any of the issues raised in this blog, we invite you to discuss them with us at jhodge@mehlaw.com or lellis@mehlaw.com.

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