“The Winner Takes It All:” The Public Use Doctrine’s Disparate Impact on Impoverished Communities in Natural Gas Production

Authors

Alana Siock, Duncan School of Law, Lincoln Memorial University

First & Last Page

94-134

Abstract

The interpretation of the public use doctrine in Takings jurisprudence has evolved on both the federal and state level, and this evolution has had a disparate impact on impoverished communities. This note proposes that the persistent poverty and economic decline plaguing northeastern Pennsylvania on the microcosmic level are a product of distributive injustice, which is exacerbated and perpetuated by the expansion of the Takings Clause’s public use doctrine. This note links these exacerbations to the continuance of the boom-and-bust economies set up in regions like northeastern Pennsylvania, finding that the Takings Clause, which was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution as a means of protecting private property ownership, has instead been warped into a means of denying distributive justice to those least equipped to seek it due to the evolution and expansion of the public use doctrine. This is done by exploring the evolution of the public use doctrine on both the federal and Pennsylvania-state levels, analyzing the ability of public utilities to harness these powers of condemnation, and reviewing the impact the fracking industry and its condemnation powers have had on northeastern Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania as a whole. Finally, remedies found in environmental justice, just compensation findings, and access to justice initiatives are proposed.

Recommended Citation

Alana Siock, “The Winner Takes It All:” The Public Use Doctrine’s Disparate Impact on Impoverished Communities in Natural Gas Production, 11 Lincoln Mem’l U. L. Rev. (2024).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.lmunet.edu/lmulrev/vol11/iss3/3