Fracking Activists Could Face Felony Charges as "Ag-Gag" Laws Spread

Joe Snow ‏@NotAJoe

The literal death of America right here .. Fracking Activists Could Face Felony Charges as "Ag-Gag" Laws Spread |
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/09-10 …


The same "Ag-Gag" laws that make it a crime to film or document egregious abuses on industrial farms may soon be used to criminalize anti-fracking activists who seek to expose environmental harms brought on by the gas drilling industry—if a bill recently proposed in Pennsylvannia passes.

House Bill 683, sponsored by Rep. Gary Haluska, D-Cambria, would make it a felony to take photos, video or audio on private land used for "agricultural purposes," downloading or distributing any such recordings; and entering agricultural property if one plans on recording.

However, as Pittsburg'sTribLive reports, the bill would go even further, in that gas frackers now commonly drilling on land that would otherwise be used for "agricultural purposes" would also be protected—meaning anyone looking to document what goes on in the ordinary day of a gas fracker, could be slapped with felony charges.

According to TribLive, Ross Pifer, director of the Agricultural Law Resource and Reference Center at Penn State University's Dickinson School of Law, said hydraulic fracturing operations could be protected under the new bill because gas companies often lease land from farmers.

(More at the link.)