A Travis County District court has tossed out a lawsuit against Kinder Morgan pipeline construction through the Texas Hill Country.
A group of landowners and officials sued to block construction, arguing the Texas Railroad Commission failed to seek public input or properly supervise the routing of the 423-mile pipeline.
Judge Lora Livingston of the 261st District Court dismissed the challenge by landowners to the licensing process at the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), which allows pipeline operators to determine the route and acquire land without a landowner’s consent. Livingston wrote that the RRC is not required to set standards to route pipelines or to regulate private land takings. The RRC allows pipeline operators that qualify as “utilities” to use eminent domain to acquire land for the public good.
Kinder Morgan’s Permian Highway Pipeline is predicted to carry 2 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas from the Permian Basin of West Texas to the Katy Hub near Houston. The company contends the pipeline will generate nearly $1 billion annually to state and county governments and will unlock production bottlenecks in the Permian Basin — allowing leaseholders to earn more than $2 billion in annual royalties.
Landowners argued that the pipeline will cross “sensitive environmental features,” such as endangered species habitats, sites of historical significance and residential subdivisions, according to a filing.
The Texas Real Estate Advocacy and Defense Coalition, which advocates for Texas landowner rights, said it was weighing an appeal.
