La. tresspass laws & oil lobbyists

As the Bayou Bridge Pipeline was under construction in 2018, Anne White Hat ventured into the Atchafalaya Swamp of St. Martin Parish to protest against it – with permission from more than 100 landowners. St. Martin is one of 11 parishes crossed by the pipeline, which brings crude oil from Texas to refineries in Louisiana. Though White Hat had those permissions, she was arrested by local authorities on two felonies, and had to post a $21,000 bond. Two years later, the district attorney still hasn’t decided whether to proceed with the charges. Ironically, the same judge that handed down White Hat’s bond, later found Energy Transfer Partners had not obtained easements or been granted permission through eminent domain. Its penalty: $450 fine. It’s a “long line of examples of how Louisiana laws (and lawmakers) are first made by oil and gas corporations and then are ignored by the same corporations if they feel like it,” said Bill Quigley, a law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans. The state has blazed a trail for other states in discouraging environmental protests for trespassing on or near “critical” oil and gas infrastructure. In 2004, it was the first state to make the “crime” a felony. Louisiana’s pioneering law can be traced to corporate lobbyists who produced a 2003 guide disseminated to state officials. Two years ago, legislators added oil and gas pipelines to the list. Three Louisiana lawmakers who sponsored the trespassing bill were members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that brings lawmakers and corporate lobbyists together to draft “model legislation” and shop them to other states. Louisiana’s 2004 trespassing law is such a template. Ten states have similar laws. (Source: NOLA.com 02/09/20) This article was produced in partnership with The Times-Picayune and The Advocate, which was a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network in 2019. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-louisiana-lawmakers-stop-residents-efforts-to-fight-big-oil-and-gas/ar-BBZLv5a?ocid=spartandhp.