{"id":29814,"date":"2013-07-17T07:47:39","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T12:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=29814"},"modified":"2013-07-17T16:28:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T21:28:53","slug":"eminent-domain-how-the-courts-are-transforming-texas-land-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2013\/07\/17\/eminent-domain-how-the-courts-are-transforming-texas-land-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Eminent Domain: How the Courts are Transforming Texas Land Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jefferson<\/a>

Photo by Dave Fehling\/StateImpact Texas<\/p>

Jefferson County Court at Law Judge Tom Rugg listens to arguments in a property rights case.<\/p><\/div>\n

This is part three of a three-part series devoted to looking at efforts to overhaul eminent domain in Texas and what may come next for landowners, pipeline companies, and the oil and gas industry. Read <\/em><\/strong>Part One <\/a>here and <\/em><\/strong>Part Two here<\/a>.
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

At the O\u2019Keefe\u2019s farm outside of Beaumont, Texas, Dick and his sister Margaret O’Keefe stood by their front door on a muggy day this summer and watch a truck pull up the long dirt road into their neighbor’s field.<\/p>\n

The truck was headed to work on the Crosstex NGL pipeline. This is a project that had declared itself a \u201ccommon carrier,\u201d a pipeline with the right to claim private property.<\/p>\n

But after the pipeline was in the ground, a Beaumont judge found otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey just claim it, and it\u2019s up to the individual landowners to challenge them,” Dick O’Keefe said. “That\u2019s where I think the state could do a better job of policing what the pipeline companies are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

For landowners like Dick O\u2019Keefe, lawmakers\u2019 failure to create a system in which pipeline companies prove their right to claim land is deeply frustrating<\/a>. The pipeline industry was also upset by inaction at the legislature<\/a>, but for different reasons. It wanted rules that freed it from the prospect of multiple landowner lawsuits.<\/p>\n

Others worry about the impact of inaction on the economy of Texas.<\/p>\n