Reminder of IRWA Chapter 67 Meeting Next Week
Just a reminder for all you eminent domain and right of way practitioners still mentally on summer hiatus. IRWA Chapter 67 (Orange County) starts its new year next week. The September meeting is Tuesday, September 14, at the Holiday Inn, Santa Ana/OC Airport, located at 2726 South Grand Ave., Santa Ana CA 92705.
The meeting starts with a "meet and greet" at 11:30. Lunch commences at 12:00. We will have a lunchtime presentation from John Ellis of Integra Realty Resources in Los Angeles. He's going to give us an update on the real estate climate here in Southern California, and I've made him promise to sugar coat it if it's going to be too depressing. (John presented a similar topic last fall to Chapter 1, and it was very well received.)
Please RSVP to Joe Munsey (it's $15 for members who RSVP; $20 otherwise). See you there!
Those of us who have faced the threat of eminent domain know two things: It is a sobering experience and private property owners do not stand on a level playing field legally, politically or economically.
More “taking” is on its way driven — not by airports or even "economic development takings" like Kelo in Connecticut — but by energy companies in search of shale gas.
For example, in New York and Pennsylvania, the rising interest in drilling in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale is bringing with it more pipelines and more underground gas storage fields — and that (pipelines & storage fields) always means eminent domain.
And in Pennsylvania, the gas industry and some legislators are talking up “forced pooling” which will permit gas companies to seize gas under your property, even if you refuse to sign a lease.
Alexandra Klass, Associate Professor of Law at the University of Minnesota Law School, wrote an article in 2008 titled, “The Frontier of Eminent Domain.” She raises the question: “Why aren’t Kelo activists also incensed over natural resource development takings?”
Indeed. The excellent Institute for Justice of Kelo fame declines to intervene in energy/utility “takings” because, they told me, of the “public good” premise. The Institute should reconsider what support it can offer in this expanding “market” for eminent domain abuse.