Protecting Landowners’ Property Rights and Water

We believe land justice starts with protecting property rights and ending eminent domain for private gain.

Right now, big corporations think they have all the power to ram their projects through communities and personal property. We believe in putting power back in the hands of landowners and we stand against the use of eminent domain for private gain.

The Easement Action Teams Landowners and Lawyers Cooperative (LLC) works with local communities to provide immediate legal representation to landowners facing pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure. Our first priority is to protect landowners’ property rights and water. We believe landowners should have the ultimate right of what does and does not happen on their land.

Our goal is to end eminent domain for private gain. We work with landowners fighting to protect and defend their lands, while simultaneously building and deploying a durable but flexible alliance of organizers, lawyers, law schools and legal organizations critical to achieve long-term, positive legal change—ending eminent domain for private gain.

The Easement Action Teams Landowners and Lawyers Cooperative is currently assisting landowners facing the proposed Summit, Tallgrass and Navigator carbon pipelines in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. We also work with landonwers in Minnesota and Illinois that have local legal teams that need assistance on best practices.

Landscape photography by Kevin Franz

The Easement Action Team was founded on the model we created in Nebraska to protect the land and water from the risky Keystone XL pipeline.

Landowners and neighbors concerned about the deck being stacked against them sought out the help of organizations like Bold Nebraska and the Farmers Union. Landowners decided a group totally focused on the legal challenges of those in pipeline routes needed to be formed. We contacted the Domina Law Group for assistance and we were able to develop a legal model that has helped protect property rights in Nebraska, Texas, Wisconsin, Virgina, West Virginia, Oregon and other states.

The Domina Law Group and lead attorney Brian Jorde, along with Easement Action Team organizers, assists landowners with all aspects of the path ahead, from education and organization to representing landowners in any state proceedings, and for negotiating standard easement terms if these proposed carbon projects ever get approved.

For years, Domina Law Group and its lawyers have been representing landowners across the Midwest and around the country in eminent domain battles and pipeline fights. For the last 12 years, Brian Jorde has worked with and side-by-side hundreds of landowners in all aspects of property right education, landowner legal challenges to proposed pipeline projects and has handled hundreds of lawsuits and appeals including constitutional challenges and condemnation litigation.

Brian Jorde most notably represented over one hundred families in an over decade-long fight against TransCanada’s proposed Keystone XL (KXL) tar sands oil pipeline. Due to the efforts of Domina Law Group and over 220 lawsuits and appeals handled, TransCanada—the second largest pipeline company in the world—finally gave up on the multi-billion-dollar project. Brian also negotiated a complete release of all easements and a return of his clients’ land to exactly how it was before TransCanada condemned their property.

Visit your state’s Easement Action Team LLC site to sign up and get more information on events and next steps.

You can also donate to help us protect the land.

Nebraska Easement Action Team (NEAT)

South Dakota Easement Team (SDET)

North Dakota Easement Team (NDET)

Iowa Easement Team (IET)

Easement Action Teams LLC