The opposition over Energy Transfer Partners’ 162-mile Bayou Bridge pipeline has made Louisiana’s bayous the latest battleground in a nationwide war against new oil pipeline construction.
Reuters reports the pushback in Louisiana is one example of the increasingly broad and diverse base of opposition to pipelines nationally, which now extends beyond traditional environmental activists. In Louisiana, opponents include flood protection advocates, commercial fishermen and property owners.
The fight follows high-profile protests in North Dakota over Energy Transfer Partners’ Dakota Access Pipeline. The protests were led by Native Americans and joined by military veterans, who together succeeded in convincing the Obama administration to delay construction.
Although President Donald Trump has since cleared that project’s completion, pipeline companies are nonetheless taking the rising political opposition seriously. Alan Armstrong, chief executive at pipeline firm Williams Companies, told a conference in Pittsburgh that Trump’s action would not hamper the protest movement.
“It may even enhance it,” he said a day after Trump cleared the Dakota pipeline in January.
Pipeline supporters argue that more infrastructure is essential for the oil and gas industry to provide affordable energy and reduce dependence on foreign imports and dirtier energy sources such as coal.
Opponents counter that pipeline companies can’t be trusted to prevent leaks. Technology designed to detect spills only accomplished that goal in 20% of known pipeline leaks between 2010 and 2016, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
