Real Estate & Property Law

Montana Delegates Eminent Domain Power to Utilities

By Alan Ackerman

My guess is that the Montana Legislature suspended land acquisitions by electric transmission companies for a year because it knew they would not need the property during that time. Now that transmission companies have had the opportunity to negotiate with landowners and know where they stand, newly elected officials have reneged on their campaign promises to protect private property rights.

The Legislature, like many across the country, readily assumes that these power lines are indeed 'public' uses, despite the fact that private transmission companies profit immensely from delegated condemnation power. Rather than this illusory one-year moratorium, everyone would have been better off had land acquisition moved forward; but in a procedural and legal framework that made landowners whole.

Helena Independent Record  

Where is the outrage from those newly elected officials who just a few short weeks ago campaigned upon private property rights as a core principal of their belief system?

House Bill 198, with its vast expansion of eminent domain, isn't about need — it is about greed.

Rural people appreciate and value, more than most, those public utilities and public works which improve lives. We are the last to receive and the first to lose electricity, telephone services, water and improved roads. Often times, we are forced to organize and do it ourselves providing, time, money and property to get these services.

Merchant lines operate in a competitive business environment. They could fail. Should we give risk taking business ventures the power to take private property?

These companies need to join the 21st century and negotiate fair business arrangements where all benefit. They do not need the power of eminent domain. Indeed, eminent domain is the fabled elephant in the room when it comes to fair negotiations.

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on January 27, 2011 (boomark / email).