The fight against Kinder Morgan’s Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) is now heading into the court system. On Monday, a multi-party lawsuit was filed in Travis County District Court on behalf of several plaintiffs, including the city of Kyle and Hays County, against Kinder Morgan and the Texas Railroad Commission (TRC) in an effort to create more oversight on the pipeline routing process. The suit also seeks to temporarily halt condemnation activity for Kinder Morgan’s Permian Highway Pipeline (PHP) until the state establishes more oversight.
David Braun, an attorney representing the Texas Real Estate Advocacy Defense (TREAD) Coalition, a local nonprofit paying for the litigation, said the current process taken by entities such as Kinder Morgan to route pipelines is “not balanced, unilateral and needs to be improved.”
Braun said the point of the suit is to ask the TRC, which oversees the oil and gas industries in Texas, to establish rules and supervision requirements so landowners and communities are part of the routing process.
