Below is an article our firm released in the September 2025 issue of Latches, the Oakland County Bar Association’s official publication. The Oakland County Bar website can be accessed here: www.ocba.org.
Utilities in Michigan are moving forward with ambitious plans to expand the state’s transmission line network significantly. Not only does this impact the delivery of electricity for retail consumers, but it also presents significant issues for property owners whose land the utility must take to construct new transmission lines. Although private companies, utilities have the authority to exercise eminent domain and take private property for just compensation. See, e.g., MCL 486.252 (authority to condemn property for certain electric and gas corporations); MCL 460.565 (requiring regulatory approval for use of eminent domain for a major transmission line). The construction and maintenance on easements taken by utilities through eminent domain can materially damage properties and their market value. Property owners are entitled to just compensation under the Michigan and United States constitutions for those damages. With the increased use of eminent domain to secure and expand the transmission line network, serious questions remain as to whether and how the entitlement to just compensation is being fulfilled.
I. New Energy Infrastructure and Reliability Challenges
Transmission lines serve as electric highways carrying high-voltage electricity from sources of energy production to areas of energy consumption for distribution, such as major metropolitan and urban areas. The lines are necessary for any functioning and modern energy infrastructure. However, they are crucial for green energy, including renewables such as wind and solar. Traditional forms of energy such as coal and natural gas are produced in a smaller number of highly centralized factories, which are generally located near major urban centers. By contrast, wind and solar farms must be placed in a higher number of locations scattered in widely dispersed and often rural areas.
The projected data on transmission line expansion paints the picture. According to the National Transmission Needs Study performed by the Department of Energy in 2023, regional and interregional transmission lines must increase by 20% and 25%, respectively, by 2035 in a “moderate” green energy and load growth scenario. United States Department of Energy, National Transmission Needs Study 124-26, 133-34 (2023). If green energy growth is “high,” the percentages rise to 64% and 114%. Id. If both green energy growth and total load growth are “high,” transmission lines must increase by 128% and 412%. Id. Therefore, as the transmission line network uses more renewable energy, the need for transmission lines increases significantly with overall energy demand. Princeton University researchers similarly concluded that achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will require transmission line capacity to increase by 60% by 2030 and to triple by 2050. Larsen et al., Net-Zero America: Potential Pathways, Infrastructure, and Impacts 27, 76 (2021).
At the same time, Michigan is experiencing continued problems with grid reliability and blackouts. According to data from the Department of Energy, Michigan has experienced some of the highest rates of power outages and some of the lowest energy reliability in the country. See U.S. News and World Report, Power Grid Reliability (2025), available at https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/infrastructure/energy/power-grid-reliability (collecting data from the Department of Energy); Climate Central, Surging Weather-Related Power Outages (2022) (reporting data on outages from 2000 to 2021 from the Department of Energy). In line with popular demand, the Michigan Public Service Commission, the state agency tasked with regulating utilities, energy rates, and transmission line approvals, has imposed increased conditions and pressure on utilities to shore up reliability and decrease outages. See, e.g., Michigan Public Service Commission, MPSC’s Focus in 2024: Boosting Electric Reliability, Expanding Public Engagement (2025); Michigan Public Service Commission, MPSC Approves Larger Power Outage Credits, Other Steps to Improve Electric Reliability, Protect Utility Customers (2023). Recent increases in energy rates have been approved by the MPSC, predicated on the utilities taking greater action to ensure reliability, maintain lines, and clear trees and vegetation. Michigan Public Service Commission, Commission Approves $153.8M for Consumers Energy to Improve Grid Reliability, Reduce Outages and Improve Service (2025); Michigan Public Service Commission, MPSC Authorizes $217,380,000 in Additional Revenue for DTE Electric Co. Investments to Boost Reliability, Modernize Aging Grid (2025).
These factors, among others, have pushed utilities to expand the size and scope of Michigan’s transmission line network and utility takings. As a result of this increased regulatory focus and public concerns about grid reliability, utilities have sought much wider and more expansive easements to construct and maintain transmission lines in order to eliminate brush, tree, and building interference. Thus, utilities are seeking more land and greater easement rights to clear obstructions from transmission lines while, at the same time, they seek significantly expanded transmission line networks to meet future energy supply goals. The end result is utilities using eminent domain at a greater rate to take more land with broader easements, predominantly in dispersed rural areas.
One incoming project is by ITC, a major nationwide transmission line company. ITC plans to construct approximately 95 miles of new high-voltage transmission lines connecting to an interstate transmission line network. See also ITC, Helix to Hiple Information (2025), available at https://mifuturegrid-openhouse.com/helix-to-hiple/#project-overview (describing the project ITC proposes to undertake). One part of the line is proposed to run up from the Indiana border and near Coldwater and Marshall in Branch and Calhoun counties, called the “Helix-Hiple” line. The second part is expected to run north from a substation near Grand Ledge in Eaton County up to Gratiot County outside of Carson City, called the “Nelson Road-Oneida” line. The projects propose a significant increase in high-voltage transmission line construction, requiring land takings across a wide swath of properties.
II. Initial Offers and Acquisition Agents
For many proposed and upcoming transmission line projects, utilities have approached property owners ahead of official condemnation proceedings and presented offers to purchase easements. Under statute, property owners are entitled to a “good-faith offer” of just compensation, which must generally be supported by a professional real estate appraisal. MCL 213.55(1); Dept of Transportation v Frankenlust Lutheran Congregation, 269 Mich App 570, 575 (2006) (explaining that the “good-faith offer” rule requires that a condemning authority “establish what it believes to be just compensation before initiating negotiations for the purchase of private lands” (emphasis added)). This provides essential procedural protection for property owners. When condemning agencies with eminent domain power approach laypeople seeking to acquire property, a professional appraisal helps establish an accurate baseline of value to ensure fairness, balance in negotiations, and informed decision-making. Compared to highly sophisticated utilities, property owners often lack representation and may be inexperienced in eminent domain matters and complex property negotiations.
Importantly, a proper valuation of damages in takings cases involves significant nuances that owners may not be aware of when first approached by a utility for the purchase of their property. Encompassed in the constitutional right to just compensation is an entitlement to not only the “fair market value of the property taken” but also the “severance damages to the remaining property.” Oakland County Board of Road Comm’rs v JBD Rochester, LLC, 271 Mich App 113, 115 (2006); M Civ JI 90.12. By way of analogy, removing steps in a ladder cannot be valued based merely on the price of stand-alone sections of wood. Damage to the ladder as a whole must be valued when its steps are removed. In many cases, damage to an entire property can significantly outweigh the isolated valuation of the square footage taken. The provision of accurate condemnation appraisals helps to ensure these principles of compensation are complied with while facilitating informed decisions from property owners negotiating with sophisticated utilities and governments. The provision of a good-faith offer with professional valuation of damages has been a fixture of American eminent domain law for decades. See 42 USC 4651(2), (3) (the federal Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970, which set forth basic guardrails for takings, mandating that “[r]eal property shall be appraised before the initiation of negotiations” (emphasis added)).
However, recently, utilities in Michigan have approached property owners and presented “market analysis” or “market studies” that purportedly value the land to be taken by the utility, without the performance of a real estate appraisal and without the provision of a good-faith offer. In many cases, these offers are initially presented verbally by third-party acquisition agents to unrepresented property owners. The market studies initially offered by utilities can have serious problems. For instance, the studies may value the compensation owed to property owners only by the land taken and exclude valuation of the damages to the remainder, an essential element of damages to which property owners are entitled.
To provide an example, a utility may propose to take an easement for high-voltage transmission line construction in close proximity to the property owner’s residence. The compensation offered will be calculated solely based on the amount of land taken and by valuing that land as vacant property. In these offers, the existence of the residence is not recognized and the resulting harm to the property value as a whole is not appraised. Yet the placement of high-voltage transmission lines, along with expansive easements with highly restrictive terms of use, can have significant impacts on the remaining property, especially one with a residential structure. Family residences can lose all of the trees and vegetation coverage that line the frontage of their property. The property may be subject to perpetual restrictions on natural growth or new construction, which could eliminate foliage and shade, reduce privacy and natural shielding from major roadways, and limit the property’s use for future development. In addition, placing high-voltage transmission lines close to residential structures can raise significant health and safety concerns among potential buyers in the market, further lowering the value of the remaining property.
In addition to concerns as to the proper valuation of damages, initial offers presented by utilities can include highly burdensome terms and conditions. Proposed easements may limit the ability to sell and lease any part of the land for several years; the actual easement location, including the line and pole locations, may not be defined and could be subject to the utility’s sole discretion; the utility may be given rights to ingress and egress over any portion of the property; and the easements may allow for the construction of new and upgraded transmission lines in the future, including multiple lines and lines with higher voltage capacity than the project currently proposed. While condemnation proceedings require that utilities take only the amount of property that is necessary for the project at hand, MCL 213.56, easement terms offered prior to official condemnation proceedings can include highly burdensome easement language that can be used to upgrade or expand transmission lines and utilities in the future.
Therefore, it is vital that property owners who are subject to condemnation proceedings or who have been approached by acquisition agents for the purchase of their property carefully review any terms of a proposed purchase agreement or easement. Without proper review, owners can sign away significant property rights and burden their land with restrictive easements, which could leave their property substantially harmed for years to come. These future burdens can be far in excess of what property owners may have contemplated when they granted the easement. Further, it is essential for owners to understand the amount of compensation to which they are legally entitled in condemnation proceedings, including damages to the remaining property as well as relocation expenses when the taking dislocates individuals from their primary residence. See, e.g., MCL 213.352; 42 USC 4622 (examples of statutory relocation expense provisions); Michigan Constitution, Art X, § 2 (requiring a 125% payment of value if the taking includes the individual’s “principal residence”). Throughout the process, hiring competent counsel to ensure understanding and adequate protection of affected property interests is strongly advised.
III. Conclusion
Even when property owners receive the full amount of just compensation to which they are entitled, they may feel as though they are not made whole. The limit of just compensation for partial takings is generally the decrease in total fair market value for the property resulting from the taking. This can be far less than what is necessary to return property to its prior condition. See Dept of Transportation v Sherburn, 196 Mich App 301, 306 (1992) (explaining that the “cost to cure” defects on a property cannot exceed “the decrease in the market value of the [remainder] property if left as it stood”); M Civ JI 90.12 (discussing the methods of calculating fair market value in cases of partial takings). Owners build lives, raise children, and grow communities around their property, and takings can leave impacts that are never fully resolved. These tensions and legal questions underlying current condemnation practices are unlikely to go away soon. With continued concerns about energy reliability, rising demand for energy in an evolving economy, and a greater reliance on renewable energy, the expansion of transmission line networks combined with the use of eminent domain will continue apace.
