TWO WOMEN WHO vandalized the Dakota Access pipeline in an effort to halt construction have been indicted on charges that carry up to 110 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. They are among the harshest penalties environmental activists have faced in the last decade.
Civil liberties lawyers say the charges are in line with industry-inspired scare tactics meant to deter citizens from participating in direct-action protests or acts of sabotage against oil and gas companies. As the deadly impacts of carbon emissions grow ever clearer, the fossil fuel industry has increased pressure on lawmakers and government officials to penalize those who would inhibit their projects operations.
At the same time, a growing number of activists have demonstrated willingness to break laws in order to highlight the urgency of the climate emergency and other ecological crises. Ruby Montoya and Jessica Reznicek, who stand accused of damaging pipeline valve sites using a welding torch, tires ignited by fire, and gasoline-soaked rags, are part of that trend.
The arrests come more than two years after Montoya, 29, and Reznicek, 38, publicly took responsibility for a series of acts of sabotage that they said was necessary to protect the rivers and waterways under which the Dakota Access pipeline passes. Both women had been involved in the Indigenous-led struggle to stop the pipeline, which attracted thousands of people to opposition camps in North Dakota and Iowa in 2016 and 2017.
We are speaking publicly to empower others to act boldly, with purity of heart, to dismantle the infrastructures which deny us our rights to water, land, and liberty, Montoya and Reznicek stated at a press conference in July 2017.
They told The Intercept at the time that they planned to use a necessity defense to argue that they had no choice but to act. Civil liberties attorneys said they are not aware of such a defense being accepted in a federal case related to climate change or environmental issues. It has, however, begun to gain traction in lower courts, where a handful of pipeline protesters have successfully argued that they acted out of necessity.
Lauren Regan, executive director of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, who is representing Montoya, said its too early to say whether the activists will follow through with their plan to mount a necessity defense. It was a couple years ago when those conversations were happening, and now theyre facing 10-year mandatory minimums, she said. The charges include one count of conspiracy to damage an energy facility, four counts of use of fire in the commission of a felony, and four counts of malicious use of fire.
I wish the government would use the same resources to go after the oil companies and pipeline companies, but clearly theyre not interested in that, said Bill Quigley, an attorney who previously represented Montoya and Reznicek. They shouldnt be prosecuted; they should be praised. Theyre trying to stop the destruction of the human race.
Vandalizing property belonging to corporations grants you a worse sentence then being a cop who broke into someone's house while not on duty and killed them. ---