## Facts

- Basin Electric Power Cooperative planned a 230-kV transmission line across ranch lands in Campbell County, Wyoming to meet increased electric demand tied to coal bed methane development and to improve service reliability.
- Basin sells electricity at wholesale to member distribution cooperatives (including Powder River Energy Corporation), which provide retail service to customers.
- Basin obtained agreements with most affected private landowners and the U.S. Forest Service but not with two landowner groups (the Bridle Bit group and the Roush group).
- Basin filed condemnation actions seeking easements and moved for immediate possession; the district court granted immediate possession and rejected the landowners’ statutory and regulatory challenges.
- The landowners challenged Basin’s authority to condemn without a Public Service Commission certificate of public convenience and necessity and argued Basin failed to prove public necessity, proper routing (greatest public good/least private injury), and good-faith negotiation.

## Issues

1. Whether a wholesale generation-and-transmission cooperative that sells power only to member cooperatives is a “public utility” required to obtain a Public Service Commission certificate of public convenience and necessity before exercising eminent domain.
2. Whether Basin satisfied statutory condemnation prerequisites, including public necessity, route selection achieving the greatest public good with the least private injury, and good-faith efforts to reach agreement before filing suit.

## Decision

- The Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed the district court’s order granting immediate possession and upholding Basin’s right to condemn.
- Basin was not a “public utility” for purposes of the Public Service Commission certification requirement because it sells at wholesale to member cooperatives rather than to the consuming public.
- The record supported findings of public necessity for the line based on increased load and reliability needs associated with regional development.
- Basin’s routing process satisfied the “greatest public good and least private injury” standard because it considered alternatives and impacts and made a reasonable engineering and land-use choice.
- Basin met the good-faith negotiation requirement through sustained negotiations, appraisal-based offers, and demonstrated inability to reach agreement after impasse.

## Legal Principles

- A wholesale electric generation-and-transmission cooperative that does not sell electricity directly to the public may fall outside statutory “public utility” provisions requiring a Public Service Commission certificate of public convenience and necessity.
- Necessity determinations in eminent domain receive deferential review; absent arbitrariness, caprice, or bad faith, courts generally uphold a condemnor’s judgment supported by evidence of public need.
- The “greatest public good with the least private injury” standard requires a reasonable balance based on consideration of alternatives and impacts, not selection of the least burdensome route in every case.
- Good-faith negotiation is satisfied by meaningful efforts to reach agreement, including reasoned offers and engagement with landowner concerns; a condemnor need not negotiate indefinitely once a bona fide impasse is reached.

## Conclusion

The court held Basin could condemn easements for a new transmission line without first obtaining a Public Service Commission certificate and affirmed immediate possession because Basin proved public necessity, selected a reasonable route consistent with the greatest public good and least private injury, and negotiated in good faith before condemning.


Bridle Bit Ranch Co. v. Basin Elec. Power Coop., 118 P.3d 996 (Wyo. 2005)