“TransCanada Corp. (TRP) faces court arguments from Texas landowners that its plans for the Keystone XL pipeline to transport Canadian tar-sands oil to coastal refineries don’t give it the right to condemn their property.
One farmer, in an appellate hearing set for today in Beaumont, Texas, will try to build on a state Supreme Court decision and what may be a groundswell of support for property rights and environmental protection in a state whose laws and courts have historically accommodated the oil and gas industry. David Holland, whose cattle and rice farm lies next to a cluster of refineries, argues TransCanada doesn’t qualify as a common carrier under state law and doesn’t have a right to take an easement for the pipeline.
Lawsuits by four landowners constitute the last hurdle blocking the pipeline’s southern leg from Cushing, Oklahoma, to the Gulf Coast. For the northern leg across the Canadian border, the Calgary-based pipeline and power company needs approval from the Obama administration, which has delayed a decision amid environmentalists’ opposition.
“There’s a lot of contemporary salience” for the landowners’ fight, Lynn Blais, who teaches environmental and property law at the University of Texas in Austin, said in a phone interview. “This is a property-rights state. But while the courts will be sympathetic, I don’t know whether the landowners will win. These are two of the most important interests to appear in court in Texas — property owners and the oil industry.”
