The Shumlin administration wants Vermont Gas Systems to halt eminent domain proceedings related to a 41-mile natural gas pipeline extension.
The governor’s office sent a letter to Vermont Gas on Nov. 28 asking Vermont Gas to suspend condemnation proceedings until March 2. The company has agreed to hold off for now, but did not commit to the March 2 date.
“To create trust between the parties and allow for constructive progress to occur on these easement issues, the governor supports the landowners’ request that [Vermont Gas] agree to a pause in easement legal proceedings,” Liz Miller, the governor’s chief of staff, wrote to project manager Jim Sinclair.
Gov. Peter Shumlin, who supports the pipeline project overall, met with landowners at his office Nov. 13 to discuss their concerns. Eleven landowners then sent a letter to the administration detailing requests to facilitate easement negotiations; they also asked for a hold on eminent domain proceedings and reimbursement for legal expenses.
Vermont Gas last month withdrew three condemnation dockets it filed with the Vermont Public Service Board in August. There are no pending proceedings.
“We’re not going to file any eminent domain proceedings for the time being,” company spokesperson Beth Parent said Tuesday. About 10 landowners completely oppose the project, and she said the company hopes to “rebuild trust with that particular group of landowners.”
It is unclear what effect the moratorium would have on the cost of the project. The company has warned that delays in construction could drive up costs, which are recovered, in part, through customers’ rates.
The landowners are also asking the state to reimburse them for legal expenses they have incurred in eminent domain and mediation proceedings.
Vermont Gas has previously denied reimbursement requests. Now, Parent said, the company is “definitely willing to consider reimbursement for legal expenses.”
Melanie Peyser, the daughter of Monkton landowner Selina Peyser, who quit her job in California to help her mother with the easement negotiations, said the idea is not to create “runaway costs,” but rather to have the company pay a flat fee for each landowner to cover some or all of their expenses. The state would send the landowners a check and bill the cost back to Vermont Gas, she said.
Many landowners fear the technical easements are too broad and say they lack the legal expertise to add protections to their property.
For example, Peyser said the company’s standard easement allows for permanent access to the corridor and can be used by Vermont Gas or any other company that would own the easement. She said the easements include loopholes that give the right-of-way holder wide use of the land.
“What happens when their plans change 15 years down the road and they decide they’re coming through your patch of elm trees or through your fence?” she asked.
The landowners are seeking to hire a lawyer with experience with pipeline easements to help them draft a standard easement agreement, Peyser said. That would include terms and conditions designed to protect the landowners from unforeseen uses of their easement, she said.
Vermont Gas agreed to provide the state with a list of all the landowners along the pipeline, their contact information and easement status, if landowners grant permission.
The Public Service Board approved the project in December 2013, determining that the project would cut greenhouse gas emissions and heating costs despite arguments from pipeline opponents that questioned these claims. Now the company has the legal right to purchase easements, or pursue eminent domain, in order to build the project.
“The state cannot force Vermont Gas to do, really, any of these things,” Peyser said of the requests. “The governor needs to decide what a good corporate citizen is.”
There are 46 landowners along the route who have yet to sign agreements, according to Vermont Gas. The company will have to decide the best way to reach easement agreements with each landowner in order to complete the project on schedule by end of next year.
