Policy

Colorado Kills Bill Granting Oil Pipeline Companies Eminent Domain

Obvious concerns for private property rights

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The more they heard, the less they liked.

That's how Democrats in the House Transportation and Energy Committee reacted to a bill that would have granted eminent domain and condemnation rights to oil pipeline companies. But the committee instead voted 12-1 last week to kill the bill, at the sponsor's request.

In the House, Senate Bill 13-191 picked up another sponsor: Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg (R-Sterling). Sonnenberg and co-sponsor Rep. Angela Williams (D-Denver) told the transportation committee that the bill was just a technical correction to a long-ago statute and would put back into law a common practice of allowing oil pipeline companies the right of eminent domain.

(Hat tip to Washington Examiner's Tim Carney)