Shocked, Shocked; Koch, Exxon, Marathon Funded State Legislators, Pols Behind Anti-Protest Bills
Politicians responsible for drafting laws criminalizing pipeline protests in Louisiana, West Virginia, and Minnesota did so after receiving significant funding from the fossil fuel industry, according to a new report by the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C. The major pipelines studied in the report disproportionately impact historically disenfranchised communities who, in turn find themselves potentially targeted by the protest criminalization measures, often framed as efforts to protect “critical infrastructure,” the report details.
“Under the premise of protecting infrastructure projects,” the Institute wrote, “these laws mandate harsh charges and penalties for exercising constitutional rights to freely assemble and to protest.” Marathon Petroleum, one of three large fossil fuel companies the report names as driving state-level efforts to criminalize pipeline protests, is also facing new allegations of electoral wrong-doing in the form of a Federal Election Commission complaint alleging that the company made over $1 million in contributions to Republican super PACs that are barred by rules preventing federal contractors from providing that sort of funding.
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(The report) finds that, for example, in Louisiana, HB727, now law, was drafted by the President of Louisiana’s Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, introduced by a representative whose third-highest contributor was the oil and gas industry. The bill was signed by Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards, who received $94,750 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry — including Energy Transfer, builder of the Bayou Bridge pipeline project — prior to signing the bill into law. The Bayou Bridge pipeline connects two petrochemical hubs in communities of color, including Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” and it passes through census tracts where Black residents have a poverty rate that's more than twice the national rate.
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West Virignia's governor, Jim Justice, had brought in $21,000 from the oil and gas industry before he signed West Virginia's critical infrastructure bill, the report notes, adding that his top donors included Marathon Petroleum, Dominion Energy, and EQT, the builder of the Mountain Valley pipeline. “These anti-protest laws elevate typical misdemeanor charges against peaceful protesters, such as trespassing, into felonies,” the report says about critical infrastructure legislation, noting that bills create criminal conspiracy liability in ways that could be extremely broad. “They also hijack the idea of ‘critical infrastructure protection,’ a term that has historically meant safeguarding vital infrastructure such as roads and bridges from dangers like natural disasters, terrorism, and cyber-attacks.”
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https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/10/31/critical-infrastructure-protest-criminalization-bills-marathon-petroleum
