Northwest Landowners Association Files New “Amalgamation” Lawsuit

The laws at issue are related to the injection of carbon dioxide into the pore space to sequester it, and the storage of gas, and they give the ND Industrial Commission to “amalgamate” the pore space to create a storage facility. NWLA believes this is a made-up word for taking property. The statute takes the property from the surface owner and gives it to the storage facility to use, and this is precisely the type of taking the courts ruled was unconsitutional in the Landowners’ prior pore space lawsuit.

 

Additionally, there are other laws in ND that allow for pre-condemnation survey access. Following NWLA’s previous successful lawsuit and a recent SCOTUS ruling in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, these types of laws purporting to grant access to private property without condemnation and just compensation are also a “physical invasion” of the private property and therefore are a per se taking under the law.

 

Derrick simplified this lawsuit by saying, “…use eminent domain. No one wants their property taken. The constitution doesn’t say they can’t take your private property. It says they can’t take your private property without paying just compensation.”