Latest Tennessee Gas Pipeline letters to landowners threaten further action if access denied

[G_j]

http://mobile.gazettenet.com/news/11807699-108/latest-tennessee-gas-pipeline-letters-to-landowners-threaten-further-action-if-access-denied

By RICHIE DAVIS Recorder Staff
Thursday, May 1, 2014
(Published in print: Friday, May 2, 2014)

Some property owners along the 179-mile path planned by the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. have received new requests for access to their property, this time specifying that landowners who do not consent to allow the survey may be subject to a formal process through the state Department of Public Utilities.

The letters, from right-of-way agent James D. Hartman, explain that the company seeks permission to perform civil, geotechnical, archaeological, wetland and stream surveys as well as surveys for rare, threatened or endangered species. That information will become part of the company’s application to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and other federal and state agencies when it formally proposes its pipeline between Wright, N.Y., and Dracut, just north of Lowell.

As now planned, the transmission pipeline would cut through nine Franklin County towns, including Deerfield, as well as parts of Berkshire, Worcester, Middlesex and Essex counties.


Unlike letters that residents began receiving during the winter, the new messages explain, “It is Tennessee’s preference and intent to continue to work with each landowner that has not consented to the survey without having to petition the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (MA DPU), as provided under Chapter 164, Sections 72A, 75B and 75D, for an order to enter your property to perform the requested surveys ... Tennessee remains hopeful that you will allow us the opportunity to continue to work with you through this survey request process and that you will agree to this survey. Tennessee prefers the one to one relationship and direct communication with you regarding this survey request rather than pursuing the MA DPU process.”

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The letter was “sobering to get,” said Laura Chapdelaine, one of the Montague property owners who has refused to allow the survey work to be done.

..more..

[hatrack]

1. This sounds like a job for . . . Captain Freedumb!

Oh, no that's right, Bundy only gets involved when it's HIS cows and money, and when he gets a chance to tell us about Teh Negro.

[GeorgeGist]

2. Freedumb™ is a registered trademark of Koch Industries.

[G_j]

3. From Bundy To The Keystone XL: Where's The Property Rights Outrage Here?

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5235813?utm_hp_ref=politics&ir=Politics

Kate Sheppard

Posted: 04/30/2014 7:30 am EDT

WASHINGTON -– Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has become something of a folk hero among the anti-government, pro-property rights crowd, thanks to his recent standoff with the federal Bureau of Land Management. Some landowners in the path of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline want to know where the support for them has been, since their private property will actually be taken away without their approval.

<snip>

Federal control of land has also flared lately in Texas, where state Attorney General Greg Abbott recently accused BLM of "hijacking private property rights" in updating management plans for land bordering Oklahoma.

But many of the pundits and talking heads who rallied behind Bundy (at least before his racist outburst) are also advocating the Keystone XL pipeline -- despite the ranchers and farmers up in arms about pipeline owner TransCanada Corp. trying to force its way onto their land.

That includes third-generation Texas farmer Julia Trigg Crawford, who has been fighting for years to prevent TransCanada from running the southern portion of the Keystone XL pipeline through her property. Crawford's 600-acre farm is in Direct, Texas, where she raises soybeans, wheat, corn, and cattle. She turned down TransCanada's original offer for her land. The company took her to court to claim eminent domain to take it anyway.

The 485-mile-long southern portion of the pipeline is already in the ground and carrying oil, but Crawford is still fighting.

"They didn't have a right to take my land against my will," Crawford told The Huffington Post this week. She had just returned to Texas from a Keystone XL protest in Washington, where she joined other ranchers and tribal groups.


Crawford said she's worried about the pipeline's effect on cultural and environmental aspects of the land. But mostly she said she's mad that TransCanada could essentially take her land without her permission. She is trying to get the Texas Supreme Court to hear her case, arguing that the company should not have had the ability to claim eminent domain in the first place.

<snip>