|
REPLY TO THREAD
|
|
Subject
|
Bill would give "Canadian" utility companies right to acquire land through eminent domain in Montana
|
|
User Name
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Font color:
Font:
|
|
|
|
|
|
Original Message
|
A Republican lawmaker wants to revise Montana's eminent domain laws.
In a Montana Legislative session loaded with controversies, the Republican-led House has now dumped HB 198, the eminent domain “fix,” in the lap of the Senate. The House debate saw a vast array of misstatements, untruths, and insane logic. The bill was written to grant MATL (Montana-Alberta Tie Line) or Tonbridge Power, a Canadian company, the power to use eminent domain to take property from Montana’s farmers, ranchers, and other rural landowners. It would also grant NorthWestern Energy’s MSTI project, a huge line from Townsend into Idaho, the power to take property.
MATL wants to build a 214-mile transmission line from Lethbridge, Alberta, to Great Falls, Montana, to allow transmission of power between the two markets. Most people thought MATL had the authority under Montana law to condemn property. But then a Glacier County Judge reviewed the law and found that the Legislature had never granted a corporate entity the right to condemn private property for the business of constructing and operating a private (for profit) “merchant” transmission line.
[link to www.krtv.com]
[link to polymontana.com]
|
|
Pictures (click to insert)
|
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | | | Next Page >> |
|
