Texas Landowners Take A Rare Stand Against Big Oil

SUMNER, Texas (AP) ⿿ In a story on Oct. 17 about TransCanada Corp.'s effort to build a pipeline in Texas, The Associated Press erroneously reported that landowners are filing dozens of lawsuits against the company. No lawsuits have been filed. Attorneys for landowners say they are in the process of preparing to file lawsuits, but have not yet done so. Some landowners have appealed court decisions condemning their land after they refused to grant TransCanada an easement allowing construction of the proposed pipeline.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Texas landowners take a rare stand against Big Oil

TransCanada finds pushback on cross-country pipeline in an unlikely place: Oil-friendly Texas

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI

Associated Press

SUMNER, Texas (AP) ⿿ Oil has long lived in harmony with farmland and cattle across the Texas landscape, a symbiosis nurtured by generations and built on an unspoken honor code that allowed agriculture to thrive while oil was extracted.

Proud Texans have long welcomed the industry because of the cash it brings to sustain agriculture, but also see its presence as part of their patriotic duty to help wean the United States off "foreign" oil. So the answer to companies that wanted to build pipelines has usually been simple: Yes.

Enter TransCanada.

As the company pursues construction of a 1,179-mile-long cross-country pipeline meant to bring Canadian tar sands oil to South Texas refineries, it's finding opposition in the unlikeliest of places: oil-friendly Texas, a state that has more pipelines snaking through the ground than any other.

In the minds of some landowners approached by TransCanada for land, the company has broken the code.

Nearly half the steel TransCanada is using is not American-made and the company won't promise to use local workers exclusively; it can't guarantee the oil will remain in the United States. It has snatched land. Possibly most egregious: The company has behaved like an arrogant foreigner, unworthy of operating in Texas.

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