Many Texas landowners have old electric line easements on their property with companies that are no longer in business, such as the old Texas Electric Co. AEP Texas, Inc. and/or Southwestern Electric Power Company (“SWEPCO”) now own many of these easements. These easements are often incredibly vague, especially regarding what…
I negotiate many power line easements on behalf of property owners each year. Generally, the utility company wants to pay for only the easement itself and refuses to acknowledge that the presence of the power line could have an effect on the overall value of the property. In part, that…
There is a new arrow in the quiver of Texas September 1, 2011. Oil and gas companies can still acquire easements across private property to build pipelines. If the pipeline is a private pipeline, the pipeline company must obtain the voluntary agreement of the property owner. If the pipeline is…
As lawyers in Texas are well aware, there is a lot of construction of high voltage transmission lines (“HVTLs”) going on in Texas as well as in other parts of the United States. Research by electricity providers shows that they may lack capacity for the future demand, and so the…