GROUP: PALMETTO PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS SHOULD BE STRENGTHENED
A conservative South Carolina think tank has come out in opposition to the proposed expansion of the Palmetto State’s eminent domain laws (an issue we addressed extensively earlier this month).
Eminent domain, of course, is the ability of a government entity to expropriate private property for public use – provided just compensation is provided.
In a position paper published this week, the S.C. Policy Council takes lawmakers to task for proposing legislation that would recklessly expand this power so as to “explicitly allow a non-utility private company to seize private property.”
“Under our state’s weak constitutional protections, many private companies considered to be utilities (telephone companies, electric lighting and power companies, water supply companies, etc.) are currently permitted to exercise eminent domain,” the position paper noted.
Now lawmakers want to extend this authority to pipeline companies as well …
Can they? Not according to an advisory opinion issued earlier this year by S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson‘s office.
“We assume one or more landowners in this instance will contest in court the right of the oil pipeline company to condemn property in South Carolina,” the opinion (.pdf here) noted. “We believe there are good legal arguments to challenge the oil pipeline company’s right of condemnation.”
Indeed …
We support Wilson’s view, and we would echo the S.C. Policy Council’s recommendation that state lawmakers tighten – not loosen – eminent domain law. This issue cannot be used as an excuse to erode private property rights – especially seeing as the pipeline project driving this debate is deader than a doornail in Georgia (where the vast majority of its proposed 360-mile route is located).
“The constitution needs a clear definition of public use. This definition should include only projects that are publicly owned and made open and available to all members of the public, such as roads and parks,” the position paper noted. “The constitution should further clarify that eminent domain can only be exercised by the state and never by a private entity.”
Additionally, we agree with the S.C. Policy Council when it urges lawmakers to ban the use of eminent domain to address “blight,” which it correctly labels as “pretext for takings for economic development schemes.”
Florida did so in 2006. South Carolina should follow suit.
In fact hopefully S.C. Rep. Kirkman Finlay – who has already announced his opposition to “eminent domain for private companies” – will consider these proposed reforms as a way of pushing back against similar incursions on private property rights in the future.
Crony capitalism is already out of control in South Carolina when it comes to allowing select special interests to take citizens’ money. We cannot give them additional leeway when it comes to taking private property.
(Pic via)
14 comments
You’ve obviously “evolved” considerably on this issue.
???
The pipeline company should have to pay royalties for enjoying use of that land.
They can pay a annual fees for an easement or make a single one time payment for and easement or fee simple purchase. If the eminent domain process is used they have to return the land if they no longer use it for the purpose for which it was taken. I ‘ve seen this happen when a road was rerouted the old road reverted to the current owner of the original parcel.
Who gives a shit…
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Private companies? What do you think SCE&G and Duke are? They sure as hell aren’t government entities. SCANA sold its pipeline company, Carolina Gas Transmission Corporation, (CGT) in December of 2014 to Dominion Resources, Inc., another private company. (CGT was SCANA’s FERC-regulated open access, transportation-only
interstate pipeline company whose system consists of approximately 1,500
miles of pipe measuring up to 24 inches in diameter operating in South Carolina and southeastern Georgia.) CGT’s, and now Dominion’s natural gas pipeline is in the same exact business as this oil company is, transporting fuel from one place to another. So if Dominion (and previously CGT) has condemnation powers, as private utility company, so should an oil transportation company. You’re picking winners and losers when you provide one type of energy transportation company over another energy transportation type company.
“The constitution should further clarify that eminent domain can only be exercised by the state and never by a private entity.”
Eminent Domain has always included private companies and even private land owners if granted by the state. I has been used to build lakes, roads and utilities. Landlocked properties have access to roads through adjoining property. As an example a logger bought a back parcel and has the right to access the property to remove his timber. A property cut off by an interstate has the right to access his property through adjoining properties with vehicles to a road with access.
What is left out is that they must receive just compensation and that is not determined by entity granted eminent domain, but by a court.
A pipeline company is considered a utility because it does not own the oil carried in the pipeline. Oil companies usually don’t own pipelines and pipelines must transport oil from any company.
Spartanburg is all in on eminent domain:
http://www.cityofspartanburg.org/news/city-council-votes-to-condemn-oakview-apartments