HB 0437 2004
1	A bill to be entitled
2	An act relating to the right of eminent domain to natural
3	gas companies; amending s. 361.05, F.S.; expanding eminent
4	domain provisions to include additional business entities;
5	authorizing use of certain eminent domain provisions of
6	law; providing an effective date.
7
8	Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
9
10	Section 1. Section 361.05, Florida Statutes, is amended to
11	read:
12	361.05 Right of eminent domain to natural gas
13	companies.--Any corporation or other business entityorganized
14	under the laws of this state, or by virtue of the laws of any
15	other state, and qualified to do business in this state, for the
16	purpose of supplying any city, town, village or the inhabitants
17	thereof, or any community with natural gas for domestic or
18	industrial purposes, including any natural gas transmission
19	pipeline company that has received certification under ss.
20	403.9401-403.9425 or is subject to regulation under the federal
21	Natural Gas Act, 15 U.S.C. s. 717, shall have the right of
22	eminent domain and may use the provisions of chapters 73 and 74
23	to lay its pipelines and works; to cause such examinations and
24	surveys for the proposed pipelines to be made as shall be
25	necessary for the selection of the most advantageous routes; to
26	enter upon any land, public or private, necessary to the
27	business contemplated in its charter; to construct its pipelines
28	across, over, under, along, and upon any stream of water,
29	watercourse, canal, lake, bay, gulf, road, street, highway,
30	railroad, and transmission line; to take from any land most
31	convenient to its pipelines and works, any timber, stone, earth,
32	water, or other material which may be necessary to the
33	construction, operation, keeping in repair, or preservation of
34	its pipelines, works, and improvements, upon making due
35	compensation according to law to private owners, with such
36	reservation, if any, of oil, gas, and mineral rights as those
37	owners may determine. If, in order to make repairs to or to
38	relocate any tracks of any railroad or for the performance of
39	any work of construction or reconstruction by any railroad upon
40	its right-of-way, it becomes necessary to relocate temporarily
41	or permanently any natural gas pipeline constructed upon any
42	railroad right-of-way, such work incident to the relocation of
43	such natural gas pipeline shall be performed, and the expense
44	borne, by the company owning or operating that pipeline.
45	Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.