Texas Legislature Passes Bill to Charge Pipeline Protesters with Felonies

[TexasTowelie]

The oil and gas industry-backed bill could blunt environmental groups’ fight against the Jupiter oil pipeline and Kinder Morgan’s Permian Highway gas pipeline.


Environmental activists, indigenous protesters, landowners and others who damage or “impair or interrupt” operations of oil and gas facilities will be charged with a felony under a bill finalized and approved by the Texas Legislature this week. That’s despite public pressure, protests and legislative attempts to soften penalties in the industry-backed bill, which now heads to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk, where it is expected to become law.

If Abbott doesn’t veto House Bill 3557, the measure will criminalize damage to so-called critical infrastructure facilities, including oil and gas facilities that are under construction, with a third-degree felony, which carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. Violators who “impair or interrupt” operations or who entered property with the intent to damage it will face a state jail felony, punishable by up to two years in prison.

The legislation could make environmental groups’ fight against the 650-mile Jupiter oil pipeline and Kinder Morgan’s 430-mile Permian Highway gas pipeline more difficult. Both pipelines would carry fossil fuels from one of the nation’s largest oil patches in West Texas’ Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast.

“HB 3557 is a fear tactic to dissuade environmental justice movements like Standing Rock from challenging the continued use of fossil fuels. We are at a tipping point as our ecosystems decline at accelerated rates, and instead of protecting our environment, we are protecting big oil and pipelines,” said Jennifer K. Falcon, campaign manager for the Society of Native Nations, in a press release, adding that she believes the measure is a violation of the First Amendment.

Read more: https://www.texasobserver.org/pipeline-protest-bill-passes-texas-legislature-felony/

[safeinOhio]

1. If this passes the 1st Amendment, then the same

could apply to laws to make protest at abortion clinics illegal too..

[Shell_Seas]

2. Fuck you, Texas Republicans.