[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3913 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3913

 To amend the Natural Gas Act with respect to application of the right 
    to exercise eminent domain in construction of pipelines for the 
          exportation of natural gas, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 7, 2012

 Mr. DeFazio introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Natural Gas Act with respect to application of the right 
    to exercise eminent domain in construction of pipelines for the 
          exportation of natural gas, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Reaffirming Constitutional Property 
Rights Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
        States states ``. . . nor shall private property be taken for 
        public use, without just compensation''. This is a fundamental 
        right of our citizenry that should not be trampled upon.
            (2) Federal Courts have found the authority of the Federal 
        Energy Regulatory Commission to grant a private company the 
        right of eminent domain to construct pipelines constitutional 
        because supplying energy to the Nation meets the ``public use'' 
        test, although property owners must be fairly compensated.
            (3) The Department of Energy currently has nine 
        applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) either under 
        review or already approved. However, a Department of Energy 
        analysis shows that the exportation of LNG could raise the 
        price of natural gas by almost 11 percent for households, 
        leading to higher heating bills. The same analysis found a 
        potential 27 percent increase in natural gas prices for 
        industrial users, making energy intensive industries less 
        competitive. The higher natural gas prices will also shift more 
        electricity generation to coal burning power plants and 
        potentially raise the price of electricity by up to 9 percent. 
        This government study strongly suggests that supplying natural 
        gas to LNG export terminals by definition does not meet the 
        ``public use'' test.
            (4) In 2010, the Journal of Legal Studies published the 
        results of a hedonic regression model using 80,000 sales to 
        estimate the fair market value (FMV) of condemned properties 
        whose owners reached compensation settlements with the 
        condemner, New York City, between 1990 and 2002. More than 50 
        percent of these condemnees were compensated with less than 
        fair market value. The average difference between settlements 
        and fair market value was 23 percent. This study suggests that 
        current eminent domain compensation rules may not ensure ``just 
        compensation''.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENTS TO THE NATURAL GAS ACT.

    (a) Limitation on Use of Eminent Domain for Exports.--Section 7 of 
the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717f) is amended by adding at the end 
the following new subsection:
    ``(i) Notwithstanding subsection (h), a holder of a certificate of 
public convenience and necessity may not exercise the right of eminent 
domain with respect to a pipeline to be constructed for the purpose of 
transporting natural gas to an LNG terminal for export to a foreign 
country from the United States.''.
    (b) Limitation on Converting Import Terminal to Export Terminal.--
Section 3 of the Natural Gas Act (15 U.S.C. 717b) is amended by adding 
at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(g) The Commission may not issue an order under this section 
authorizing exportation of any natural gas from the United States to a 
foreign country from an LNG terminal if such LNG terminal uses for such 
exportation any pipeline constructed for the purpose of transporting 
natural gas to such LNG terminal and for which a holder of a 
certificate of public convenience and necessity has exercised the right 
of eminent domain pursuant to section 7(h) of this Act after January 1, 
2012.''.
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