Alan sez, "So there's this woman who decided she wasn't going to give Keystone XL passage rights through her land in Texas. Not even for the few tens of thousands of dollars they offered. And then the story gets weird.
In Texas, companies (like TransCanada) can use eminent domain. All they have to do is declare themselves a 'common carrier' which is apparently a one-page form you have to fill out. Keystone did that and then took Julia Crawford's land."
Apparently they didn't know that "take your BS and shove it" runs kind of deep in the heart of Texas women. Ms Crawford sued and lost (despite the judge phoning in the ruling – no I'm not making this up) and then she appealed and lost again. Now she's trying to raise funds to appeal again to the Texas Supreme Court. As crazy as that might sound, the TX Supreme Court has in the past been willing to rein in corporate abuses of eminent domain and the Crawfords have as good a case as you're likely to get.
(Thanks, Alan!)
