State Senator John Edwards drew applause at Monday’s Cabell Brand Center forum on gas pipelines with his assertion about property owners’ rights, but the case may not be as clear as some people in the audience seemed to believe.
“I think our senator, Senator Edwards, did a really great job today, clarifying about Virginia law about imminent domain. So that alone is worth its weight in gold.”
That’s Angela Conroy, the Cabell Brand Center’s executive director, praising State Senator John Edwards’ explanation of landowners’ rights when a pipeline company wants access to private property.
“What happens if you say no? That’s not in the law, the written statutory law, but I think it’s pretty clear because you have the absolute right to say no. That’s in contest in federal court, the courts will say that. I also think if you do nothing and they show up you can sue them for trespass, too. Now why do I say that? It’s a little thing called the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Virginia. Just a little thing.”
Acknowledging that the issue is before the courts, Edwards argues that the Virginia Constitution prevents a private company from entering private property without a property owner’s permission until a government entity such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has declared the company’s project has a public purpose.
“So in my opinion, you would have very strong grounds and I know the litigants in the federal court in Charlottesville and the Nelson County case and also in the Augusta County case take the same position, that unless FERC issues a certificate of public convenience and necessity, the natural gas pipeline company, which is a private company, has no right to enter your property at all without your permission. And I think that is the law.”
Edwards, who helped write some of the legislation he’s talking about, thinks that’s the law, but as he said, its meaning is still being argued in court - and the attorney general’s office is arguing state law allows companies to come onto private property even without a landowner’s permission.
