A Power Grab in Olympia: Electric Companies Win the Right to Condemn Land
A bill allowing electric power companies to seize private property for transmission lines squeaked through the Washington House on a reconsideration vote in 1895.
Olympia, Feb. 20.—(Special.) Representative Albertson's bill to extend the right of eminent domain to electric power companies, which failed to pass on the 11th, passed the House this morning on a motion to reconsider by a vote of 18 to 14. It reads as follows:
'Section 1.—The right of eminent domain is hereby extended to all corporations incorporated, or that may hereafter be incorporated, under the laws of this state or any state or territory of the United States for the purpose of transmitting electric power by wire, cable or by any other means. Provided, That said right of eminent domain shall not be exercised in respect to any residence or business structure or structures.
Sec. 2.—Every corporation incorporated or that may hereafter be incorporated under the laws of this state or any state or territory of the United States for the purpose of transmitting electric power by wire, cable or any other means, shall have the right to enter upon any land between the termini of its proposed lines for the purpose of examining or locating and surveying such line, doing no unnecessary damage thereby.
Sec. 3.—Every such corporation shall have the right, subject to the provisions contained in section 1 hereof, to appropriate real estate or other property for right-of-way or for any corporate purposes in the same and under the same procedure as now or may be hereafter provided by law in the case of other corporations authorized by the laws of this state to exercise the right of eminent domain.'
“The right of eminent domain is hereby extended to all corporations ... for the purpose of transmitting electric power by wire, cable or by any other means.”
Washington still fights over where power lines and energy infrastructure can cross private land, and eminent domain remains one of the most combustible issues in state and local politics. The 1895 bill's narrow 18-14 margin shows how long the tension between utility build-out and property rights has been with us. Modern fights over transmission lines for renewables are the direct descendants of this vote.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.