Public Comment. Volume III - Montana Legislature

To:
Environmental Quality Council
Eminent Domain Sub-committee Meeting
Montana State University - Billings
March 23,2000
EQC Eminent Domain
Su bcommittee-Pu blic Hearing
March 23. 2000
Exhibit 8
From: Bob Stevens, Jr., P. 0. Box 1510, Helena, MT 59624
Subjects: I. Reshaping Eminent Domain to Synchronize it with New Technologies Not
So Dependent on Major Utility Rights-of-way
11. Our Competence to Testify Before this Hearing
111. Addressing the Problem of the Tongue River R.R.
We begin with a very well founded omen, which, if ignored, will postpone the reduction of
emissions necessary for the stabilization of the world's atmosphere.
The Stone Age did not end because the world ran out
of stones, and the oil age will not end because we run
out of oil.
(Shell Hydrogen Division, Royal Dutch Shell)
This paper presents an important departure fiom standard 20Lh Century Eminent Domain
utility corridor permitting procedures, which were mainly confined to the corridor itself. The
departure we recommend would add consideration of the suitability of the activities at receiving and
delivery points whether at the mine, terminal, or wellhead, at the combustion kility down line, and
at points beyond - closer to the consumer.
The main focus would be on that facility which expels emissions into the atmosphere. This
will not, as the reader will find, be an overall addition of bureaucracy to any given comprehensive
project because, as we move along in the 21" Century, the scale of, and need for, Eminent Domain
will diminish. The rationale for co-mingling responsibility for a utility corridor with the rest of a
project is as follows:
Entirely new systems of energy production and delivery, some under development for
decades (including by NASA), are coming on line and will replace the traditional polluting industry
of the 20' Century with new environmentally benign alternatives. It is unfortunate to report that the
U.S.A. still lags behind most of the rest of the world in the introduction of these alternatives, that
being, in part, for lack of financial incentives here, and in part, due to the status quo mentality of
corporate America.
These new systems usually combine the following features:
EQC Eminent Domain Study -1 51 -