Rep. Don Coram, our representative in the Colorado State House, says his top value is to "Protect Our Individual and Property Rights." Yet his staff told me today that he plans to vote YES on SB 93, which will expand eminent domain to for-profit pipeline companies. Eminent domain is the power granted to governments to take, by force, private property for public use. Giving this power to for-profit companies is not limited government. It's not protecting my rights as a property owner. Coram's staff said that the Colorado Supreme Court's 2012 Larson vs. Sinclair decision merely misinterpreted a "missing comma," and that SB 93 will restore common practice in line with the original intent of the law. This is a gross oversimplification - I read the Larson decision, and I stand with the court's interpretation. Eminent domain granted to municipalities and power companies for the purpose of providing a societal good of electric power (and later amended to bring natural gas to homes and businesses) makes sense. It was never intended to grant pipeline companies arbitrary access to pipe oil and gas out of state just for their own profit motives. If pipeline companies won't pay market value to land owners for what they want, they shouldn't get the state to bully individuals off of their land. Please call Rep. Coram at 303-866-2955 and tell him to vote NO on SB 93.
Tim Smith
Dolores