How Much Is Fair?: Will Senate Bill 18 Ensure Condemners Pay Just Compensation for Land Taken Due to the CREZ Transmission Lines?

Focuses primarily on whether S.B.18 ensures that landowners receive just compensation for the land utility companies condemn as part of the CREZ project. In order to gain an understanding of how the CREZ project came about, Part II provides the history of wind energy development in Texas. Part III then switches gears and looks at the land appraisal process and how the subjectivity inherent in that process creates problems in the condemnation process. Part IV then provides an overview of how the condemnation process occurred in Texas prior to the enactment of S.B.18 and how the problems mentioned in Part III could cause confusion in the condemnation process. Part V looks at how S.B.18 changes the condemnation process in Texas by analyzing the key provisions that focus on creating an equal playing field between the condemning authority and the landowner. Part VII concludes that Texas needs to adopt an attorney's fees provision in order to ensure that condemning authorities do not continue to have an unfair advantage over landowners. Specifically, arguing Texas should adopt a provision that adopts elements of both the Wisconsin and Florida approaches in order to create a unique provision that achieves the goal more efficiently than either approach does independently.