The Keystone XL pipeline proponents hope it will transport Canadian tar-sands crude oil to Gulf Coast refineries. The Keystone Pipeline System is a pipeline system to transport synthetic crude oil from northeastern Alberta, Canada to multiple destinations in the United States, which include refineries in Illinois, Oklahoma, and proposed connections to refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas.
One of the main issues with Keystone XL, in addition to its various environmental harms, is that the construction of the pipeline will require taking private land from landowners throughout the country, using eminent domain. Although the government will have to provide just compensation for any land taken, several landowners have hired an eminent domain lawyer to review their cases and fight against the taking. Such cases have been ongoing in Texas for the past year.
The pipeline opponents in Texas claimed that a 2011 TX Supreme Court decision withheld condemnation powers from interstate pipelines that transport out-of-state crude into Texas - only intrastate pipelines transporting hydrocarbons within state borders should be allowed to use eminent domain, the landowners and their condemnation lawyer said in court filings.
This would imply that TransCanada could not use eminent domain, as the company doesn’t meet the definition of a “common carrier” under the 2011 ruling and shouldn’t be allowed to use state eminent-domain laws to take private property. The lower court rejected the farmers’ claim, and the case moved to the appeal's court.
The appellate panel agreed and upheld the dismissal, finding that the Texas law doesn’t limit the right of eminent domain to pipelines within the state’s borders. Now, officially under Texas law, TransCanada is a common carrier and will be able to take any land needed for the construction and maintenance of the pipeline.
TransCanada has consistently won in all lawsuits along the Keystone XL pipeline route through Texas. Thanks to the court's permission, if President Obama approves the pipeline, then TransCanada can legally start to build the southernmost leg of its 2,151-mile pipeline between western Canada and the US refining industry complex on the Texas coast.
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