Real Estate & Property Law

Enbridge Name Tarnished

By Alan Ackerman

Trading Markets offered an article on the Enbridge oil spill, explaining how local counsel opposing the pipeline are raising the safety issue.
    It is not a question of whether the pipeline is safe or not.  Clearly, it can be safe enough not to affect value if all safety precautions are utilized.
    The problem with Enbridge is that we now have a history of  governmental regulators failing to protect the public by assuring the pipeline is safe.  This will permanently affect those who live near Enbridge pipelines.  If it affects them, it will cost Enbridge money in the form of just compensation.  As for those who are near a pipeline, property values are diminished and those who have already provided the easement will likely suffer without compensation.

Trading Markets

Opponents of Enbridge's proposed Central Illinois pipeline say two recent Midwest oil spills involving the company are a wake-up call that could stymie the project.

The 170-mile Enbridge pipeline would run from near Pontiac to Patoka in southern Illinois, moving 400,000 barrels of crude each day. But it's been delayed both by a recession that cut demand for petroleum products, and by legal challenges from landowners uneager to give Enbridge easements.

Their fears included a possible leak, and Enbridge may have to return to the Illinois Commerce Commission to seek eminent domain. But now, with high-profile Enbridge leaks in Romeoville and Michigan, and fresh memories of the Gulf oil spill, landowner attorney Thomas Pliura is saying "I told you so."

"I won't say (the leaks) are a death knell, but the bar has just gotten that much higher for Enbridge to come in and say we want to re-apply with the ICC," said Pliura, of LeRoy, who has represented hundreds of affected landowners. "I view dark clouds on the horizon for the project."

Full post as published by National Eminent Domain Blog on September 24, 2010 (boomark / email).