{"id":7126,"date":"2012-03-06T11:53:44","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T17:53:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=7126"},"modified":"2012-03-06T12:05:08","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T18:05:08","slug":"how-to-get-eminent-domain-in-texas-just-check-this-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/03\/06\/how-to-get-eminent-domain-in-texas-just-check-this-box\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Get Eminent Domain in Texas (Just Check This Box)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Teresa Vieira\/KUT News<\/p>

How do you get eminent domain in Texas? Just check a box.<\/p><\/div>\n

Texas is a state that prides itself on its independent spirit and rugged individualism, particularly the rights of landowners to use their land as they please. But it’s also a state that has a long history of drilling for oil and gas and a tradition of cooperation with the industry. Where the two traditions intersect, and at times collide, is when the oil and gas industry needs private land for their projects. That’s been the case in two instances recently, both involving pipelines and farmers.<\/p>\n

One involves a rice farmer that didn’t want a carbon dioxide pipeline on his land<\/a>, which went all the way to the Supreme Court of Texas. They sided with the landowner in that case. In the other, a farmer in northeast Texas is fighting an eminent domain claim by the company behind the Keystone XL pipeline<\/a>. That pipeline would go through her farm, and today the head of the company behind it, TransCanada, announced that they intended to start construction as early as this spring on the section from Cushing, Oklahoma to Port Arthur, Texas.<\/p>\n

In both cases, the companies claimed they had eminent domain to build their pipelines on the respective properties because they were “common carrier” pipelines, which would be used to transport oil and gas from other companies in addition to their own.<\/p>\n

But who decides if the pipeline deserves that status? In essence, the companies do.<\/p>\n

In a simple one-page form, titled T-4, a company simply checks a box to indicate that they are a “common carrier.” The form is then\u00a0submitted to the Railroad Commission of Texas, which oversees oil and gas drilling in the state.\u00a0Once the form is approved, they can then use that status to claim eminent domain.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at the form:<\/p>\n