Real Estate & Property Law

Eminent Domain for Transmission Lines

By Alan Ackerman

Las Vegas Sun

Even snippets of comments by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can make big news. Entire stories are written from sentence fragments grunted in a hallway.

But Friday morning, Reid had time to expand on his thoughts for nearly an hour at a breakfast with more than 30 journalists. It was a fresh opportunity for the nation's reporters to see Reid unplugged.

He put on quite a show. As his autobiography reminds, Reid offers flashes of wit, impatience and steeliness. Friday, he touched on the war in Afghanistan, AIG bonuses, Supreme Court Justice John Roberts' truthfulness and his own reelection in 2010.

He also told the journalists they should eat healthier breakfasts.

Here are highlights, condensed and occasionally paraphrased for clarity:

Eminent domain for electrical transmission lines.

We need to have a public highway for electricity. We're going to have to have eminent domain — that's condemnation.

U.S. Senator and Majority Leader Harry Reid is blunt. We will need eminent domain for the power lines which will need to be built for the grid. The problem remains who decides where it goes....should it be done on the State or local level or by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission?

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on April 01, 2009 (boomark / email).