Texas Rice Land Partners Revisited: Texas Supreme Court Sets Low Bar for Pipeline Common Carriers

© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.

By Michael E. Schonberg, Richard B. Hemingway Jr., Richard B. Phillips Jr. and John Atkins of Thompson & Knight

In Denbury Green Pipeline–Texas, LLC v. Texas Rice Land Partners, Ltd. (“Texas Rice Land Partners II”), the Texas Supreme Court held that Denbury, a pipeline company, met its burden to demonstrate “common carrier” status for the purpose of establishing eminent domain authority because it had shown that, at the time of condemnation, there was a “reasonable probability that, at some point after construction, the [pipeline for which the land was condemned] would serve the public by transporting CO₂ for one or more customers who will either retain ownership of their gas or sell it to parties other than the carrier.”