Private Co. Condeming Land for Gas Pipeline Across PA - loophole allows it because 1/2 mile in Del.

[JPZenger]

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/4407377-74/sunoco-pipeline-domain#axzz2aYvjiK1c

A new natural gas pipeline is being built across the length of PA from outside of Pittsburgh to Marcus Hook along the Delaware River. The goal is to export natural gas from PA to overseas countries, where the prices are much higher. Multiple huge corporations are working to capture this market, which will involve liquefaction of the gas for transport on ships.

Now, one of those companies has started using condemnation powers to acquire the right-of-way from private property owners. Usually, condemnation is used by governments to acquire parkland, etc. However, a loophole in the law allows a private company to use condemnation through 300 miles of Pennsylvania because one-half mile of the route passes through the state of Delaware.

Excerpts:

"That half-mile is key, experts said, because any inch of a pipeline that crosses a state border qualifies as interstate commerce, giving Sunoco the power to take land for the project, even if it's designed to ship gas overseas.

“That is very convenient,” said Amanda M. Olejarski, a Shippensburg University professor who released a book about eminent domain in March. “They're really kind of massaging and taking advantage of all the advantages the law provides them.”

Though experts consider pipelines among the safer forms of transport, this is not a typical natural gas line — and that worries some residents. It will carry ethane and propane, liquid gases that hover in explosive clouds instead of dissipating during leaks, safety experts have said."

[Mojorabbit]

1. This is beyond the pale. nt

[PoliticAverse]

2. Unlike natural gas propane is heavier than air and so tends to pool in a low-spot. n/t

[Curmudgeoness]

3. Damn it.

Just when I think that they can't piss me off any more, they take the challenge.

There is something so fundamentally wrong with this scenario.