Kenai Landing, Inc. v. Cook Inlet Natural Gas Storage Alaska, LLC Kirkpatrick-Walkowski-Watkins Trust and Chere D. Kaas

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the compensation award for an underground natural-gas storage easement. It held that the landowner suffered no compensable loss from the utility's non-consumptive use of native gas because the existing lease gave the lessee exclusive production rights and left the landowner with only reversionary interests. The court also upheld the trial court's valuation of the storage rights, including its use of currently approved capacity, equal valuation of storage and buffer areas, and reliance on the utility's expert methodology.