Virginia Supreme Court upholds pipeline survey law, but with dissent
The Virginia Supreme Court has upheld, for the third time, a hotly debated state law allowing natural gas companies to enter private property without landowner permission to survey possible routes for new pipelines.
But the court delivered the 6-1 decision on Thursday after a linguistic battle with Justice Arthur Kelsey in a biting dissent that challenges the 2004 law's central premise of allowing gas companies to enter private property without permission and a federal permit that allows them to exercise eminent domain.
While the majority opinion written by Justice Cleo E. Powell said the General Assembly clearly intended "to grant natural gas companies access to private property for the purpose of conducting certain activities related to the possible construction of a natural gas pipeline," Kelsey's 23-page dissent contends the ruling turns private property rights upside down.
"It subordinates the ancient common-law rights of private property owners to the commercial interests of a pipeline company that is under no legal requirement to enter onto another's land," he said.
Read more: https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/government-politics/general-assembly/virginia-supreme-court-upholds-pipeline-survey-law-but-with-dissent/article_c9df380f-0ae8-55be-a010-45195bcd69d3.html