Rubens Proposes Property Rights Protections in Pipeline Proposals

HOLLIS, NH - In a speech to a group of pipeline opponents in Hollis on April 27, 2016, U.S. Senate candidate Jim Rubens, R-Hanover, unveiled his proposal to protect property owners from what he described as unconstitutional takings for private, rather than public purposes, according to a press statement.

“Kinder-Morgan may have spared New Hampshire’s southern border towns by mothballing its natural gas pipeline, but the threat remains,” said Rubens. “At any time, this or another interstate pipeline proposal could emerge, with Federal Energy Regulatory Commission bureaucrats having power to take people’s houses or property against their will by eminent domain.”

Rubens proposes amending 15 U.S. Code § 717f by removing FERC authority to take private property other than when the taking is for a purpose wholly for public use and necessity. Where the burden of proof is now placed on the property owner to show a lack of public necessity, Rubens proposes the burden to be placed on the pipeline applicant. Unlike as at present, the existence of domestic or foreign supply contracts would not constitute evidence of public necessity, the candidate noted.

Also unlike at present, if a pipeline were found to be a public necessity, the applicant would be obligated to engage in "good-faith negotiations with a landowner prior to any exercise of eminent domain." The applicant would also be required to evaluate health and safety impacts and to weigh alternatives to those requiring land takings. Alternative means to mitigate gas supply constraint could include non-gas fuels or energy sources or use public roads or other rights of way as energy transmission or pipeline corridors, he noted.

“The changes I propose reflect the strongly expressed will of New Hampshire voters, who in 2006 amended our state’s constitution by adopting Article 12-a by an overwhelming 85 percent margin,” said Rubens. Article 12-a reads: “No part of a person's property shall be taken by eminent domain and transferred, directly or indirectly, to another person if the taking is for the purpose of private development or other private use of the property.”