The Rock Island Clean Line is inching toward submitting its application to the Illinois Commerce Commission for approval–and surprisingly, it intends on doing it without applying for eminent domain authority.
According to an RICL spokesman, Clean Line Energy Partners is “committed” to voluntary land negotiations and wont apply for the power to acquire land.
What it sounds like: Clean Line is going to offer landowners fair market value for their land.
What it really is: Clean Line is going to make offers to landowners with the looming ability to acquire it eventually if it so chooses. In the end, if Clean Line wants to get authority to acquire land from the ICC, it will. And Clean Line knows this. How “fair” is an offer from an organization that may acquire it via statute anyway? The choice not to seek authority outright is merely a guise to fake landowners into thinking the offers they receive are fair representations of their property’s valye.
What it also means: By refusing to apply for eminent domain authority, Clean Line does not have to publish the names and locations of the land it seeks to acquire. This prevents landowners from receiving vital information from organizations–like the Professional Institute of Landowner Attorneys and Appraisers–seeking to help those under Clean Line’s thumb.
If you are a landowner in the path of the RICL, stand up for your property rights. Speak to one of our legal experts today.
Full story here.
