(MCT) -- An East Texas landowner fighting construction of the Keystone XL pipeline across her family’s land has lost her legal battle.
Julia Trigg Crawford, who owns a farm near Paris, has been engaged in a lengthy dispute with Keystone owner TransCanada over the company’s use of eminent domain to build its pipeline through her land.
She said Monday that the state’s highest court has refused to hear her case on appeal.
The 485-mile Texas/Oklahoma part of the pipeline is a leg of a proposed 2,630-mile pipeline from Canada to Nederland.
Crawford said the Texas Supreme Court informed her family Friday that its petition for review was denied, meaning the court will not take the case on appeal.
In August, the Sixth Court of Appeals in Texarkana ruled unanimously that a Lamar County court-at-law judge was within his authority to allow TransCanada to condemn the right of way on property owned by Crawford to allow the pipeline to go through.
“With years invested in this fight for our land, and frankly the lands of many Texans threatened by eminent domain abuse, we are obviously disappointed our case would not be heard,” Crawford said in a statement. “We believe, as do thousands around the world who have supported us in our fight, that the issues at hand are crystal clear, and the abuses being perpetrated are undeniable.”
President Barack Obama has yet to decide the fate of TransCanada’s pipeline from Canada into the U.S. The pipeline also has been delayed by environmental concerns in Nebraska.
“While this door on our family’s legal case may be closing, there are many other battlegrounds where I will now redirect my focus, be they at the local, state or federal levels,” Crawford said. “There’s so much that needs to change — laws, processes, perceptions, our representatives and more. I must not allow the momentum gained, the alliances forged and the truths exposed during these past three years to be for naught, and I intend to continue fighting.”