ALEC wrote anti-protest bill in TN to shield fossil fuel projects, farms

[Tanuki]

https://wpln.org/post/report-conservative-group-wrote-anti-protest-bill-in-tennessee-to-shield-fossil-fuel-projects-farms-too/

"In 2019, Tennessee criminalized protests against oil and natural gas infrastructure in legislation that didn’t receive much attention at the time.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was partially responsible. The conservative thinktank helped draft legislation in 24 states in response to visible efforts from Indigenous communities and environmentalists to oppose fossil fuel projects, according to new research.
...

The highest-profile example of this was in North Dakota, where the Standing Rock Lakota Sioux Tribe demonstrated against the Dakota Access Pipeline despite attack dogs and water canons. The protest slowed down the project and brought attention to pipeline companies.

In this case, the company was Energy Transfer Partners, which is involved in lawsuits regarding its operation against anti-pipeline activists. They also own the pipeline that leaked nearly 200,000 gallons of crude oil into Tennessee this summer.

Those protests started around 2016. The first protest bill came in 2017 in Oklahoma. Tennessee quickly followed suit."....(more)

[Timeflyer]

1. Not surprising--they always think ahead to protect their money source

by keeping politicians in line.