TEXAS SUPREME COURT TO HEAR EMINENT DOMAIN CASE AGAINST TEXAS CENTRAL’S PROPOSED HIGH-SPEED RAIL
The Texas Supreme Court has granted a motion for rehearing of a case that challenges the eminent domain authority of the company in charge of the controversial high-speed rail project between Houston and Dallas.
The court previously denied review of the matter, but on Friday it agreed to hear the case of James Miles, a landowner in Leon County who is challenging whether or not Texas Central is legally recognized as a railroad company under state law. Oral arguments are set for January 11, 2022.
In the case summary provided by the court, Miles argues that Texas Central “is not operating as a railroad because it has not taken crucial steps toward operation, such as laying track or running cars.” He also states that the company “is not an ‘interurban electric’ railway because the Legislature did not intend to include large high-speed railways within the statutory definition.”
The summary also cites the case of Texas Rice Land Partners, LTD v. Denbury, and Miles says the decision from that case “requires entities show a reasonable probability that a project will be completed before obtaining eminent domain power.”
State Representative Ben Leman applauded the court's decision to hear the case, saying in a statement that private property ownership “is among our most cherished rights in Texas” and that allowing a private entity to “abuse that right” would set “a disastrous new precedent in Texas.”
Here is a company with less than 2% of the funds needed trying to use eminent domain authority. Their own CEO has recently admitted publicly that they require 12 BILLION in loans from the Infrastructure bill if passed to even begin to start. To date, no loan of this size has ever been made and especially to a project with zero assets. Why should a private company be allowed to force other businesses to close and home / landowners to sell via eminent domain when they do not have the funding to even condemn?
Meet socialism
I guess I see it differently. If I wanted to build something for public use (lets say an airport) first I would need to obtain plans, permits, right-of-way, contracts with an EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction), and then the airlines which are going to use the airport. While the actual airport will cost several hundred million to build, to get to the point of “shovel-ready” I would only need a fraction of that cost.
After all of that is squared away, then I go to investors for funding. The more shovel ready I am, the less risk for an investor, the higher chance of success in obtaining funding. But the key here is that I don’t have to already own an airport to develop a new one. That doesn’t really make sense. If that were true, there would be less chance for new comers into the market and a decrease in competition which is bad for consumers.
My company develops power generation facilities throughout Texas, we exclusively use this method of getting a project shovel ready before going to our investor group. I can assure you 1000%, no large project has all of its funding while in development. What nut job would give me 50 million dollars to build something if I didnt even have permits or a right-of-way for basic utilities?