ACTION: Call Your Senators – Oppose Pipeline Safety Act Amendment to Criminalize Landowner Opposition
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Today, Senator Tim Sheehy of Montana submitted an amendment to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that says any landowner who attempts to prevent the operation or construction of a carbon dioxide pipeline is subject to arrest, and if convicted would face up to 18 years in jail and up to a $250,000 fine.
The language of the amendment is so broad that it would apply to any landowner who seeks to prevent surveying. While this broad reach may not be Senator Sheehy’s intent, the amendment would nonetheless give federal law enforcement agents extraordinarily broad powers to arrest landowners who seek to defend their property rights and prevent construction of carbon dioxide pipelines.
It is likely that this amendment will be voted on Wednesday, October 8th, by the Commerce Committee.
The proposed amendment (IN CAPS) would change the language in 49 USC 60123(b) as follows:
“A person knowingly and willfully damaging or destroying, VANDALIZING, TAMPERING WITH, DISRUPTING THE OPERATION OR CONSTRUCTION OF, OR PREVENTING THE OPERATION OR CONSTRUCTION OF an interstate gas pipeline facility, an interstate hazardous liquid pipeline facility, or either an intrastate gas pipeline facility or intrastate hazardous liquid pipeline facility that is used in interstate or foreign commerce or in any activity affecting interstate or foreign commerce, or attempting or conspiring to do such an act, shall be fined under title 18, imprisoned for not more than 20 years, or both, and, if death results to any person, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life.”
The fine amount corresponds to the length of prison term. An 18-year term is a Class C felony under 18 USC § 3559(a)(3), resulting in a fine of not more than $250,000 under 18 USC § 3571(b)(3).
The language clearly states that any person who attempts to disrupt or prevent the construction of a hazardous liquid pipeline (which includes CO2 pipelines) by any means could be arrested by federal agents and charged with a Class C federal felony.
This language is not limited to persons who seek to or who actually physically damage pipelines. Instead, it is so broad that it could apply to landowners who seek to prevent surveying of their property, because such resistance could be seen as an attempt to prevent construction. It’s even broad enough to apply to participation in zoom calls, demonstrations, state administrative hearings, or law suits for the purpose of preventing construction of a pipeline.
Senator Sheehy may intend to further criminalize physical attacks on pipelines, which are already subject to state criminal laws. However, his language goes way, way beyond this intent. It would authorize federal agents to arrest anybody who even attempts to prevent construction of a pipeline by any means. Landowners should not assume that federal law enforcement powers would never be turned against them.
Criminal laws should not be written so broadly that they criminalize landowner rights to defend their properties using lawful means.
Landowners should contact their Senators to alert them to this excessively broad amendment.
CALL NOW to be connected with your U.S. Senators: 855-980-2396
TELL THEM: I oppose the Pipeline Safety Act amendment that could make it a crime to refuse surveyors and organize legally to oppose a CO2 pipeline project.
As it stands, the bill also offers little in the way of meaningful protections for communities impacted by carbon pipelines. Bold signed onto a letter with over 120 other organizations that highlights the bill’s current lack of evidence-based CO2 pipeline safety measures required to protect communities from pipeline ruptures and mass poisoning events. [1]
You may also wish to urge your Senators to include these commonsense safety measures in the Pipeline Safety Act:
- Require pipeline companies to disclose emergency response information — like the dispersion modeling that estimates how far a CO2 plume would travel in the case of a pipeline rupture — to first responders, oversight agencies, and the public and communities living nearby when projects are first proposed to pass through them.
- Require pipeline companies to fund local emergency response preparedness and all necessary equipment.
- Recognize the right of state and local governments to set zoning, routing, abandonment, and decommissioning requirements for carbon pipelines.
