Bills Target Energy Pipeline Protesters

This article featured our favorite agitator-in-chief, Ed Fallon, talking about the latest pipeline protest laws and how the labor unions are now worried about what these prospective laws mean for ALL protesters, including members of labor unions.

Excerpt from Urban Milwaukee:

Ed Fallon, a former Iowa legislator who now heads an environmental advocacy organization called Bold Iowa that focuses on combating climate change, says that his organization and the union have often found themselves on opposite sides where the pipeline project was concerned. The project, after all, employed union members who saw it as an opportunity for work.

Not this time.

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Link to original article: https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2019/10/21/bills-target-energy-pipeline-protesters/
By Erik Gunn, Wisconsin Examiner, October 21, 2019

Excerpt:  Early in 2018 Iowa lawmakers passed, and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed, a bill that imposed a stiff fine of up to $100,000 and a prison term of up to 25 years for people who purposely vandalize — or who attempt to — so-called “critical infrastructure” in the state: telecommunications and broadband, water and energy pipelines, and other equipment deemed “crucial lifeline systems” in the Hawkeye State.

But the real target of the bill, environmental groups suspected, were people protesting an underground oil pipeline passing through that state.

Environmentalists weren’t the only ones lobbying against the measure. Joining them was the Iowa branch of the International Union of Operating Engineers — the labor union representing heavy equipment operators on construction projects.

Ed Fallon, a former Iowa legislator who now heads an environmental advocacy organization called Bold Iowa that focuses on combating climate change, says that his organization and the union have often found themselves on opposite sides where the pipeline project was concerned. The project, after all, employed union members who saw it as an opportunity for work.

Not this time