North Dakota bills targeting pipeline protests

Washington Post

No matter where they stand on a $3.8 billion pipeline that would funnel oil through their state, North Dakota legislators have grown weary of a year of protests that have brought international scrutiny and a mounting police bill.

So they've drafted legislation in response to what's happening near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation. One bill would make it illegal for adults to wear masks. Another would let the state sue the federal government for the cost of policing the protests.

Now, a legislator wants to give motorists a pass if they happen to hit one of the protesters.

House Bill 1203 was sponsored by state Rep. Keith Kempenich, the owner of a trucking company. It would extend protections for drivers who accidentally injure or kill a person obstructing traffic on a public road or highway.

Kempenich, a Republican, said he's in favor of the pipeline and the economic benefit it would bring but 'wants to see it done right.”

He said his bill is aimed at aggressive tactics by some protesters.

'This bill is not about oil. We ranch. We're conservationists, too,” he said. 'But there's a line between protesting and terrorism, and what we're dealing with was terrorism out there.”

One distraught driver in particular caught Kempenich's attention - his 72-year-old mother-in-law. She was driving on Highway 1806 when suddenly she found herself swarmed by protesters, chanting, holding signs and, she told her son-in-law, jumping in front of her car.

Kempenich said he's not trying to legalize vehicular manslaughter. Drivers would still have to do all they can to avoid protesters.

But the law says protesters have to do their part as well to stay on sidewalks and road shoulders. If they don't, Kempenich said, the law should favor motorists.

'The First Amendment gives people the right of freedom to assemble peacefully but it also gives the right for people to ignore that protest,” he said.

LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, a protest organizer, told the Associated Press the legislation is a product 'of people not communicating.”

'I have never seen so many people frightened in all my life,” she said of the anti-protest bills. 'My recommendation for the legislature would be to pray harder. I think people are living on rumor and gossip more than they do the truth.”

For a year, a coalition of Native American tribes and environmentalists have protested the Dakota Access underground pipeline, which is routed in four states including across Iowa.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and other Native Americans believe the project, which would carry oil from North Dakota to a shipping point in Illinois, threatens drinking water and cultural sites.

Texas-based developer Energy Transfer Partners disputes that.

The protesters have created a camp adjacent to the Standing Rock reservation and a mile from where the pipeline is planned to cross the Missouri River.

Protesters also built a roadblock on Highway 1806, preventing people from passing for months.

In December, the Army Corps of Engineers denied a permit for the section of the pipeline going under the Missouri River, but President-elect Donald Trump has said he supports completion of the pipeline, which already is mostly done.