Real Estate & Property Law

Gas Storage Companies Accused of Violations

By Alan Ackerman

Stating The Commission and Safety Division allegations below may be premised upon arguable misconceptions of what 'low opposition' is and whether there is a potential to condemn in the future are expressions potentially allowed under the 1st Amendment.  However, telling residents that a company issued flier must be in their possession in order to attend the project Draft Environmental Impact report meeting is reprehensible and wrong.  It violates all tenets of fairness.
 

The Sacramento Bee
 

A division of the state's utility regulator is calling for an investigation and $80,000 in fines against a Sacramento company pushing to store billions of cubic feet of natural gas beneath a south Sacramento neighborhood.

The commission's safety division, in its motion, alleges multiple violations:
• Misrepresenting in a document to the
commission that there is "low opposition" to
the project when the company's own actions
stifled opposition.
• Making inaccurate representations that the
company has eminent domain authority over
underground storage rights should owners
choose not to sign lease agreements.
• Telling residents they needed a companyissued
flier to attend an April hearing on the
project's draft environmental impact report.
Sacramento City Councilman Kevin
McCarty, whose district encompasses the
site, said he found the allegations "very
surprising, and a little bit disconcerting."
"A lot of these residents aren't used to these
PUC proceedings, and the allegations
outlined are troubling," McCarty said.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on June 14, 2010 (boomark / email).