A Republican effort to crack down on protests and disruptions around pipeline projects could get a vote in a Senate committee Wednesday, sparking alarm among environmentalists.
A draft amendment by Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) would greatly expand the definition of criminal pipeline sabotage, which is currently defined as “willfully damaging or destroying” a facility. Such acts are punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Sheehy’s measure, a copy of which was shared with POLITICO’s E&E News, would extend criminality — and 20 years in prison — to any action that is willfully “damaging, destroying, vandalizing, tampering with, disrupting the construction or operation of, or preventing the operation or construction of” pipelines.
The amendment could get a vote at a markup of a bipartisan pipeline safety bill Wednesday. Sheehy’s office did not respond to a request for comment asking whether he planned to offer it. Earlier this year, Sheehy introduced a bill, S. 1017, that mirrors the language of the new amendment.
