Pipeline company, AG differ in law’s interpretation
A court will likely have to decide whether the company that wants to build an oil pipeline from Belton to Jacksonville, Fla., has the right to use eminent domain to acquire rights-of-way for the project.
South Carolina Solicitor General Robert Cook wrote in an opinion that lawmakers did not intend to include private companies operating pipelines for private customers when it extended eminent domain rights to “pipeline companies.”
Houston-based Kinder Morgan wants to build a 360-mile Palmetto Pipeline to carry up to 7 million gallons of gasoline, diesel and ethanol a day.
“In this instance, we have substantial doubt that the right of condemnation to ‘pipeline companies’ conveys such power to an oil pipeline company,” Cook wrote in the opinion, which is advisory and not legally binding.
The proposed route for the pipeline would run through South Carolina and Georgia and cross five major rivers and private property owned by hundreds of people.
“We assume one or more landowners in this instance will contest in court the right of the oil pipeline company to condemn property in South Carolina,” the opinion said. “We believe there are good legal arguments to challenge the oil pipeline company’s right of condemnation.”
Kinder Morgan spokeswoman Melissa Ruiz said the company disagrees with the opinion.
“As the Attorney General’s opinion notes, there is another reading of the statute that supports our view,” she said in an email.
She said Kinder Morgan is committed to negotiating route access with South Carolina landowners for “full and fair compensation whenever possible.”
“Kinder Morgan is hopeful that the issue addressed in the Attorney General’s opinion never has to be determined in court,” she said.
Ruiz said the company believes the project will serve a necessary public purpose that will benefit South Carolina and its residents through high-paying jobs, increased state and local tax revenue, and safe and efficient transportation of petroleum products that will result in lower prices at the pump and decrease the burden on motor transportation systems.
