(The Associated Press circulated the following on March 10, 2009.)
HELENA, Mont. — A plan to make it harder for private property to be taken over the owner’s objections has stalled in a Montana House committee.
The measure is aimed at the proposed Tongue River Railroad that would stretch south from Miles City to almost the Wyoming border.
Some landowners, backed by candy magnate Forrest Mars, Jr., want to tighten eminent domain law so that they can stop the railroad from being built across their land.
Opponents said the measure, House Bill 422, would get in the way of opening a billion-ton coal deposit near Ashland to development. The railroad would also provide a new route for coal coming out of mines in Wyoming.
The measure stalled Monday on a tied 7-7 vote in the House Federal Relations, Energy and Telecommunications Committee. Republicans in control of the Senate have also been cool toward the idea.