Texas Judge Gives TransCanada OK To Condemn Land For Keystone Pipeline

"PARIS, Texas -- The developer of the disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline, planned to carry oil from Canadian tar sands to Texas Gulf Coast refineries, may condemn land across a northeast Texas farm for the pipeline's right of way, a judge ruled Wednesday."



"In an email to attorneys Wednesday night, Lamar County Court-at-Law Judge Bill Harris ruled that the pipeline would be a common carrier and that TransCanada has eminent domain rights to right of way across the farm.

Messages left with TransCanada were not returned Wednesday night. However, landowner Julia Trigg Crawford planned to appeal the decision to a state district court in Paris, said Tom 'Smitty' Smith, Texas director of the activist group Public Citizen that is part of the coalition fighting the pipeline project.

In a statement issued Wednesday night, Crawford said she was disappointed that Harris 'wholly dismissed our entire case with a 15-word ruling sent from his iPhone.'"

The Associated Press had the story August 23, 2012.

SEE ALSO:

"Landowners Vow To Fight" (Associated Press)

"Judge Upholds Eminent Domain for Pipeline in Texas" (New York Times)
 

Source: AP, 08/24/2012