effectively outlaw demonstrations near pipelines, chemical plants and other infrastructure. Nine states have
gone along so far, in some cases classifying the activities as felonies. More are considering measures.
The lobbying campaign, documented in state disclosures and other records reviewed by Bloomberg News,
has raised concerns about corporate influence muzzling free speech.
“Oil refiners, especially Koch Industries and Marathon Petroleum, orchestrated this unholy alliance of oil,
gas, chemical, and electric utility companies to crush resistance to polluting industries,” says Connor
Gibson, an investigator with Greenpeace who has tracked the efforts.
Industry representatives portray their efforts as a necessary counter to the increasingly aggressive tactics of
activists, which include videotaping confrontations with police for posting on social media.
“There is nothing more important to the fuel and petrochemical industries than the safety of our people, our
communities and our facilities – and willful, disruptive and dangerous interference with critical
infrastructure puts that safety at risk,” the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) said in
a statement. “Our advocacy is intended to protect public safety and private property, not chill first
amendment rights, which don’t entitle a person to destroy property or create public hazards.”
Bills criminalising trespassing near oil pipelines, gas processing equipment and other designated “critical
infrastructure” passed this year in Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and Texas – building
on similar measures previously enacted in Oklahoma and other states. Supporters are now pushing to create
infrastructure protest laws in Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Their template is model legislation endorsed by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the
conservative group backed by the Charles Koch Institute, which encourages state lawmakers to advance
ready-made bills on topics ranging from gun rights to tort reform.
The new state laws vary, but generally create a new, more serious category of trespassing when it’s done
near energy infrastructure and interferes with construction, carrying felony prison sentences of as much as
five years and fines of as much as $10,000 (£8,200). In some cases, it can include activists who have
permission from landowners to mount protests in the fields and trees near critical energy infrastructure.
Some states have extended penalties to organisations found to have “conspired” in the activity.
The state efforts respond to a wave of activism by environmentalists opposed to oil, gas and coal, because
burning those fossil fuels creates carbon dioxide emissions that drive climate change. The activists
increasingly are focused on fighting the infrastructure needed to transport and process those fossil fuels.
The AFPM, and one of its top members, Marathon Petroleum, spearheaded efforts to get ALEC to support
the model legislation in 2017, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named
discussing internal strategy.
Marathon, AFPM and three other trade groups, including the American Chemistry Council, sent state
lawmakers a letter urging support for the approach before they convened at an ALEC summit two years
ago. The result – ALEC’s endorsement of a ready-made, template bill – was an essential boost to creating
the new felony protest crimes nationwide.
Louisiana enacted legislation expanding its critical infrastructure law to include pipelines in May 2018 as
Energy Transfer Partners was building its Bayou Bridge pipeline across the state and self-dubbed
“kayaktivists” were mounting water-based protests against the project. Energy Transfer backed the
legislation, according to a report at the time from KATC, a Lafayette, Louisiana television station. The
Bayou Bridge pipeline was completed in March – after protesters were charged with critical infrastructure
trespassing crimes in connection with it.