Residents fight eminent domain used in laying gas pipeline in Pa.

Associated Press

LAPORTE, Pa.

A pipeline operator assured federal regulators it would minimize using eminent domain against private landowners if given approval to lay a 39-mile natural-gas pipeline in northern Pennsylvania’s pristine Endless Mountains.

Yet the company was readying condemnation papers against dozens of landowners even as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was considering its application for the $250 million MARC 1 pipeline. Within two days of winning approval, Central New York Oil & Gas Co., LLC went to court to condemn nearly half the properties along the pipeline’s route — undercutting part of the regulatory commission’s approval rationale and angering landowners who are fighting the company in court.

Eminent domain would give the company the right to excavate and lay the 30-inch-diameter pipeline on private property. Landowners would not lose their properties and would be compensated.

The dispute could foreshadow eminent-domain battles to come as more pipelines are approved and built to carry shale gas to market in states such as Pennsylvania, New York and Ohio.

Some of the complaining landowners say the company steamrolled them by refusing to negotiate in good faith on either monetary compensation or the pipeline’s route.

Residents are fighting the pipeline on two fronts: challenging the eminent- domain proceedings in court and appealing the approval by FERC.

The pipeline operator, a subsidiary of Inergy LP of Kansas City, Mo., insists it’s trying to reach a “fair settlement” with all residents.

The company promotes the MARC 1 pipeline as key infrastructure in developing the Marcellus Shale, a vast rock formation underneath Pennsylvania and surrounding states that experts believe holds the nation’s largest reservoir of gas. The high-pressure steel pipeline will connect to major interstate pipelines and the company’s own natural-gas storage facility in southern New York state.

Many landowners say they favor natural-gas drilling, and some have leased land to gas drillers. What rankles them is that the federal government has invested the company with the power of eminent domain, taking away their bargaining power.