When the Oklahoma House Judiciary Committee passed Rep. Lee Denney’s pipeline eminent domain bill this week, it wasn’t exactly smooth sailing for the Cushing Republican. She explained it was a short and simple bill giving more protection to landowners in condemnation cases involving pipelines, transmission lines and utility lines.
“They just want a right to have due process to say where these pipelines, transmission lines and utility lines might be placed on their property,” explained Rep. Denney during the committee hearing.
But what got the attention of others on the committee was the inclusion of “mental anguish” as part of HB 2276.
Committee chairman, Rep. Mark McCullough (R) thought the inclusion was going too far. So did others on the committee including Rep. Jon Echols and Rep. Chris Kannady, the vice chairman of the committee.
When McCullough attempted to introduce an amendment to remove the mental anguish reference, the committee and Rep. Denney agreed to ‘strike the title’ which means work will continue on rewriting the measure even though the committee agreed to recommend passage to the full House. In all likelihood, the bill will arrive on the House floor without any reference to mental anguish to be considered in the condemnation proceedings.
Listen to the committee hearing on Denney’s bill and how the discussion proceeded.