The Florida Senate

361.05  Right of eminent domain to natural gas companies.--Any corporation or other business entity organized under the laws of this state, or by virtue of the laws of any other state, and qualified to do business in this state, for the purpose of supplying any city, town, village or the inhabitants thereof, or any community with natural gas for domestic or industrial purposes, including any natural gas transmission pipeline company that has received certification under ss. 403.9401-403.9425 or an entity that is subject to regulation under the federal Natural Gas Act, 15 U.S.C. s. 717, shall have the right of eminent domain and may use the provisions of chapters 73 and 74 to lay its pipelines and works; to cause such examinations and surveys for the proposed pipelines to be made as shall be necessary for the selection of the most advantageous routes; to enter upon any land, public or private, necessary to the business contemplated in its charter; to construct its pipelines across, over, under, along, and upon any stream of water, watercourse, canal, lake, bay, gulf, road, street, highway, railroad, and transmission line; to take from any land most convenient to its pipelines and works, any timber, stone, earth, water, or other material which may be necessary to the construction, operation, keeping in repair, or preservation of its pipelines, works, and improvements, upon making due compensation according to law to private owners, with such reservation, if any, of oil, gas, and mineral rights as those owners may determine. If, in order to make repairs to or to relocate any tracks of any railroad or for the performance of any work of construction or reconstruction by any railroad upon its right-of-way, it becomes necessary to relocate temporarily or permanently any natural gas pipeline constructed upon any railroad right-of-way, such work incident to the relocation of such natural gas pipeline shall be performed, and the expense borne, by the company owning or operating that pipeline.

History.--s. 1, ch. 26893, 1951; s. 13, ch. 92-284; s. 1, ch. 2004-77.