Post by pavel on Jan 24, 2016 23:46:56 GMT -6
It is safe to say that property rights are sacred in Texas. We inherited our love of the land from past generations who toiled to make the harsh landscape bloom. Nowhere is this truer than in the Big Bend region of Texas.
In 2012, the Texas Attorney General’s Office issued a Landowner’s Bill of Rights specifying all the protections each of us has against government interference, including the taking of property under eminent domain. One of the requirements for land condemnation is that it be for a public use. This is to ensure that the burden placed on a few will benefit the larger community; however, the mechanisms for balancing private property rights against the public good are now being exploited by profit-driven companies.
The so-called TransPecos pipeline proposed by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, or ETP, calls for a 125-foot-wide trench to be cleared across approximately 143 miles of private property in some of the most pristine country in Texas. A channel also will be tunneled beneath the Rio Grande River.
While Texas landowners will be burdened by this pipeline, they will not receive the benefits. This pipeline was commissioned by the Federal Electricity Commission of Mexico, a foreign entity. The natural gas flowing through this enormous 42-inch pipeline is destined for Mexico, where most of it will be liquefied and shipped to markets in Asia.
Read more: www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Landowners-under-siege-in-the-Big-Bend-6777875.php
In 2012, the Texas Attorney General’s Office issued a Landowner’s Bill of Rights specifying all the protections each of us has against government interference, including the taking of property under eminent domain. One of the requirements for land condemnation is that it be for a public use. This is to ensure that the burden placed on a few will benefit the larger community; however, the mechanisms for balancing private property rights against the public good are now being exploited by profit-driven companies.
The so-called TransPecos pipeline proposed by Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, or ETP, calls for a 125-foot-wide trench to be cleared across approximately 143 miles of private property in some of the most pristine country in Texas. A channel also will be tunneled beneath the Rio Grande River.
While Texas landowners will be burdened by this pipeline, they will not receive the benefits. This pipeline was commissioned by the Federal Electricity Commission of Mexico, a foreign entity. The natural gas flowing through this enormous 42-inch pipeline is destined for Mexico, where most of it will be liquefied and shipped to markets in Asia.
Read more: www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Landowners-under-siege-in-the-Big-Bend-6777875.php