Shocked, Shocked: Reporting Reveals American O&G Majors Drove Push To Criminalize Peaceful Protest

Fossil fuel lobbyists coordinated with lawmakers behind the scenes and across state lines to push and shape laws that are escalating a crackdown on peaceful protests against oil and gas expansion, a new Guardian investigation reveals. Records obtained by the Guardian show that lobbyists working for major North American oil and gas companies were key architects of anti-protest laws that increase penalties and could lead to non-violent environmental and climate activists being imprisoned up to 10 years.

Emails between fossil fuel lobbyists and lawmakers in Utah, West Virginia, Idaho and Ohio suggest a nationwide strategy to deter people frustrated by government failure to tackle the climate crisis from peacefully disrupting the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure by enacting tough laws with lengthy jail sentences. “Draft bill attached,” wrote a lobbyist representing two influential fossil fuel trade groups to the lead counsel for the West Virginia state energy committee in January 2020. The law, which carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence, was later used to charge at least eight peaceful climate protesters including six senior citizens. Amid ongoing record oil and gas expansion in the US, activists say they have turned to protests and non-violent civil disobedience such as blocking roads and chaining themselves to trees, machinery and equipment as a way to slow down construction, raise public awareness, and press for more urgent climate action by governments and corporations.

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According to the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, 45 states have considered new anti-protest legislation since 2017, with 22 critical infrastructure bills enacted in states including Wisconsin, North Dakota, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida and Louisiana. A critical infrastructure law passed in Georgia in 2023 carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison for intentional damage to critical infrastructure with the intention of disrupting service. In Louisiana, unauthorized entry around pipelines and other oil and gas facilities is punishable by imprisonment – with or without hard labor for up to five years. So far, the critical infrastructure laws have led to scores of criminal and civil charges against climate and environmental activists in several states.

This includes three activists and a journalist in Louisiana protesting against the Dakota Access pipeline; 31 activists charged in Texas after rappelling off a bridge to hang banners protesting against oil and gas; and eight protesters in West Virginia criminally charged for peacefully disrupting construction of the Mountain Valley pipeline (MVP), the fossil fuel project forced through by the Democratic lawmaker Joe Manchin with help from the supreme court.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/26/anti-protest-laws-fossil-fuel-lobby