Kansas woman fights eminent domain for renewable energy projects

Members of agriculture and environmental groups, including Virginia Crossland-Macha of Stand For The Land Kansas, are offering insight into how Kansas could modify state eminent domain law to protect property owners and meet energy demands.

 

A woman known for her skepticism of renewable energy urged a special legislative committee in Kansas this week to give more leverage to property owners who don’t want wind and solar power projects and transmission lines on their land.

Virginia Crossland-Macha, leader of Stand for the Land Kanas, spoke to a committee and spent much of her testimony critical of NextEra Energy and NextEra Energy Transmission.

“Farmers are struggling to keep the farm going as the green utilities expand their footprint across Kansas using eminent domain as a weapon,” she said, according to the Kansas Reflector.

Government v. people: With eminent domain, whose land is it?

“Freedom in Kansas is in peril. Kansas families are frightened as they see their individual rights being questioned. Taking property away by eminent domain has people worried.”

She is outspoken about NextEra since it received approval from the Kansas Corporation Commission in May to build an 83-mile, 345-kilovolt transmission line in eastern Kansas. Crossland-Macha was joined by the Kansas Farm Bureau and Kansas Livestock Association in urging legislators to help landowners in regards to eminent domain cases involving utility developers.

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