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| This article was published on: 07/01/2001 FRONTLINES Bush energy plan Power lines vs. property rights The massive energy plan the Bush administration released in mid-May to address growing power woes around the country will get a hard look from private-property rights advocates. Deep within the several-hundred-page document is a recommendation that Congress give the president eminent domain authority to obtain land for the construction of energy transmission lines. That’s a recommendation that has sparked the attention of some REALTORS® . “For all intents and purposes, eminent domain authority revokes the right of individuals to use their property in its highest and best use, and that affects the value of that property,” says C.D. “Chip” Boring, CRS , vice chair of NAR’s Land Use, Property Rights, & Environment Committee. Boring is with RE/MAX Realty Plus, Sebring, Fla. Power transmission lines also reopen the debate about the uncertain health effects of electromagnetic field radiation and the perceived impact of EMF radiation on nearby property values, Boring says. The federal government already has eminent domain authority for land acquisition for other public purposes but not for construction of power transmission lines. The Bush administration says it needs the additional authority to clear local roadblocks that keep utility companies from acquiring land for the high-voltage lines. The administration’s energy task force, which drafted the energy plan, debated the eminent domain issue long and hard and only reluctantly decided such authority was critical in order to clear energy transmission bottlenecks and spur development of production, says Kyle McSlarrow, chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Energy. The day before the plan was released, McSlarrow spoke to REALTORS® at NAR’s 2001 Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C. As envisioned in the plan, the authority would be invoked by the federal government “only in the most extreme cases,” McSlarrow told REALTORS® at the meeting. Private-property rights advocates are sure to be watching how the issue plays out. “It’s still very early, but the use of that authority is an issue the government needs to address carefully,” says Boring. “We hope it wouldn’t be done indiscriminately and without forethought and just compensation.”
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