At first reading I’m with the landowners on this one.
Fyi
Yep.
The results will lay out a proposed plan and each landowner will be more than reasonably paid ... either up front or as a royalty, lay a pipeline that ... if it REALLY bothers you ... PAINT the damned thing.
WV mountain folk are a stubborn lot, and sometimes unreasonably so.
Been there, done that, got the T shirt
Except they're going to lose.
I they don't have it already, the pipeline will have common carrier status -- open to transporting gas from various suppliers and delivering it to any terminal that is economically viable.
The argument that it's not for "public use" isn't going to hold water.
Besides which, I've never understood landowners' objection to a pipeline. They get money for the right-of-way, the construction crew crosses the property once and buries the pipe. And everything is as before, except the landowner has a check.
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We need to see a map to even form a valid opinion on this.
I doubt that the nature of the properties in question is such that the pipe will ultimately have a great effect on most of the land owners.
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This makes sense for utility and transportation lines.
Without having eminent domain for these purposes it would be very difficult to build the roads, transmission lines, fiber optics, water systems, etc. that are necessary in a developed country.