Bayou Bridge Pipeline Opponents Say Louisiana Governor's Office Is Surveilling Them

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Opponents of the Bayou Bridge pipeline accused Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards of meeting with representative of the oil and gas industry while refusing to meet with activists and communities affected by the pipelineโ€™s construction. They further allege that the administration has instead placed them under surveillance, pointing to similar treatment of Dakota Access pipeline opponents in North Dakota in 2016. Their claims are based in part on emails and other public records released by theย state.

The activists brought their grievances to the Democratic governorโ€™s home and office on March 1, holding a press conference in front of the Governorโ€™s Mansion in Batonย Rouge and then occupying the foyer to his office in the State Capitol for over anย hour.

โ€œThe Bayou Bridge pipeline should be called the John Bel pipeline,โ€ Louisiana Bucket Brigade founder and director Anne Rolfes declared at the press conference. In her view, โ€œany accidents that will happenโ€ related to the pipeline lead back to the Governor. He had the power to stop it, she said, but chose notย to.ย 

At the press conference,ย representatives from theย HELP Association, 350 New Orleans, L’eau est La Vie (Water Is Life) camp, andย theย Center for Constitutional Rightsย also expressed disappointment in what they described as the state governmentโ€™s cozy relationshipย withย industry.

Louisiana Bucket Brigade read aloud emails about the Bayou Bridge pipeline from the Edwards administration and industry that were obtained byย the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a New York-basedย legal and educationalย nonprofit.

Pastor Harry Joseph of Mt. Triumph Baptist Church in St. James, Louisiana
Pastor Harry Joseph of the Mount Triumph Baptist Church in St. James, where the pipeline will terminate, speaking at the press conference in Batonย Rouge.

Security staff at the Louisiana Bucket Brigade press conference March 1
Security next to the press conference in Batonย Rouge.

The governor, who voiced his support for the pipeline early on, has not commented on a federal judgeโ€™s recent ruling halting construction of the project through the Atchafalaya Basin, an environmentally sensitive National Heritageย Area.

The pipeline is a joint venture between majority stakeholder Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline,ย and Phillips 66 Partners, LP. Pipeline construction along its route from Lake Charles,ย near the Texas border, to St. James,ย about 60 miles west of New Orleans, began inย January.ย 

CCR attorneyย Pamela Spees grew up inย Lake Charles,ย Louisiana, one of the communities affected by the pipeline. She said in a press release that the emails show howย โ€œthe deck is stacked against people in Louisiana who stand in opposition to the ongoing destruction and harm caused by the Oil and Gas industry. The indications of monitoring and surveillance of local advocates and small organizations by the Governorโ€™s Office of Homeland Security andย Emergency Preparedness are particularly concerning. It is astounding that the resources of so many law enforcement agencies are trained on watching these organizations andย communities trying to exercise their rights to beย heard.โ€

In addition, Spees found it โ€œdeeply troubling that not one email released by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality contained any discussion of or expressions of concern by people in the agency about the alarmingย accident history of the companies involved in the Bayou Bridgeย project.โ€

CCR is still fighting to get other public records related to the Bayou Bridge pipeline, and has appealed two cases it lost. One is against Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC, in which the nonprofit sought records concerning the companyโ€™s use of eminent domain. And the other is against Louisianaโ€™s St.ย Charles Parish Sheriffโ€™s Office and Sheriff Gregย Champagne for failingย to release public records related to trips he and some of his deputies took to North Dakota to observe how law enforcement was responding to the Dakota Access pipelineย protests.

โ€œWe saw a dangerous blurring of the lines between law enforcement and private corporations at Standing Rock,โ€ย Speesย said.ย โ€œLouisiana residents have a right to know what roleย local officials played in that situation and how it relates to events playing out closer toย home.โ€

Surveillance of Opponents of the Bayou Bridgeย Pipeline

Dominic Renfrey, a representative with the Center for Constitutional Rights, informed me that Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC is employing the firm Hub Enterprises to provide security for the company, based on sightings at pipeline constructionย sites.

Energy Transfer Partners spokesperson Alexis Daniel told me, โ€œThe safety of our employees and the communities in which we live and work is our top priority. In order to ensure that, we do have security plans in place and we do communicate with law enforcement agencies as appropriate. Beyond that, we do not discuss details of our securityย efforts.โ€

CCRโ€™s Renfrey also said that documents released last week indicateย the Governorโ€™s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP)ย โ€œmight be involved in surveillance.โ€ย The GOHSEP directorย sent an emailย about the Louisiana Bucket Brigade to state regulatory and law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Department of Natural Resources, the Louisiana State Police, and the Louisiana National Guard.ย  The agency also prepared a report about theย L’Eau Est La Vie Camp, contrasting it to the resistance camps against the Dakota Accessย pipeline.

Hub Enterprises security personnel near a Bayou Bridge pipeline construction site
Hub Enterprises security personnel across the street from a Bayou Bridge pipeline construction site that activists shut down temporarily on February 26 during a direct action leading to the arrest of three protesters.ย 

GOHSEP Communications Director Mike Steele told The Advocate that thereโ€™s nothing sinister about his agencyโ€™s role. โ€œThe agency keeps an eye on issuesย that may, at some point, draw big crowds requiring security, traffic control, or crowd control. Homeland security may have an ominous connotation,โ€ heย said, โ€œbut they arenโ€™t spies.โ€ย 

โ€œItโ€™s not surveillance. Itโ€™s letting these agencies know that these matters are ongoing,โ€ Steeleย said.

There was plenty of security on hand at the March 1 press conference and impromptu visit to the governorโ€™s office. Some of the security personnelย were impossible to identify because they remained in vehicles with tintedย windows.

Anne Rolfes tries to catch who is inside an apparent security vehicle
Anne Rolfes, founder of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, trying to figure out who was in an SUV monitoring the press conference across from the Governorโ€™sย Mansion.

Security inside the foyer of the Louisiana governor's office during an anti-pipeline protest
Security inside the foyer in front of the governorโ€™sย office.

The documents so far obtained by CCR donโ€™t indicate that any state agency hiredย a private security firm to surveil opponents of the pipeline. However, if one did, it wouldnโ€™t be theย first time a government agency in Louisiana hired a private firm to supplement itsย resources.

Last year, New Orleansย Mayor Mitch Landrieuโ€™s administration hired Trident Response Group, a private security firm based in Texas, forย risk assessment, surveillance, intelligence gathering, and extra security atย sites where Confederate monuments were slated forย removal.

Landrieuโ€™s administration defended the move to hire a private security firm after documents from an open records request showed the city paid over $700,000 dollars toย Trident in May while the city prepared to remove the monuments. While denying that the city spied on local groups on either side of the issue, the city has not been transparent about what services Trident provided.ย ย 

Take โ€™Em Down Nola,ย the group pushing for the removal of the Confederate monuments, suggested that Trident may have hacked some of its membersโ€™ emails and social media accounts and possibly infiltrated theย group.

Trident shares similarities with TigerSwan, one of the private security firms employed by Energy Transfer Partners in North Dakota, and Hub Enterprises. All three companiesโ€™ websites tout staff that include former military personnel.ย 

TigerSwanโ€™sย license application with the Louisiana State Board of Private Securityย was turned down last year.ย The denial was based on the pending litigation against theย company forย allegedly operating in North Dakota without a permit.ย 

Some Bayou Bridge opponents believe the company was working in Louisiana without a license before its application was turnedย down.

In February 2017, James โ€œSpiderโ€ Marks spoke in favor of the Bayou Bridge pipeline at a permit hearing. Heย identified himself as a retired U.S. Army major general and president of a corporate advisoryย firm, but did not disclose that he also sits on TigerSwanโ€™s board ofย advisors.ย 

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade says that emails from GOHSEP reveal Louisiana officials are aligned with a growing national trend ofย surveillance intended to intimidate citizens exercising their First Amendment rights, a finding the group considersย alarming.

โ€œSince the Standing Rock camp opposing the Dakota Access pipeline in Northย Dakota was disbanded last year, 56 bills that heighten the risk and criminal penalties of dissent have been introducedย across 30 states,โ€ reads a press release from the organization. โ€œMany of these bills seek to frameย protests as โ€˜riotsโ€™ and activists as โ€˜terroristsโ€˜ or โ€˜jihadists,โ€™ in attempts to criminalize protected free speechย activity.โ€ย 

Several states have even gone as far as introducing or passing bills that critics say would specifically criminalize pipeline protests.

โ€œThe documents reveal an unacceptable disparity in the public agenciesโ€™ treatment of pipeline and industry representatives in contrast to the communities they’reย obligated to serve,โ€ Spees said. She told me that CCRย will continue to seekย more information fromย Louisianaโ€™s public agencies because the documents already obtainedย suggest there is more to theย story.

Energy Transfer Partners spokesperson Alexis Daniel told me, โ€œThe safety of our employees and the communities in which we live and work is our top priority. In order to ensure that, we do have security plans in place and we do communicate with law enforcement agencies as appropriate. Beyond that, we do not discuss details of our security efforts.โ€

I asked Governor Edwardsโ€™ office what he would say to those who feel he is willing to meet and listen to representatives of the oil and gas industry but not the Bayou Bridge pipelineโ€™s opponents,ย including those directly impacted by the project. Shauna Sanford, a representative from the governorโ€™s office, said, โ€œWe don’t have a comment at thisย time.โ€

Main image: Louisiana Bucket Brigade founder Anne Rolfes at a press conference protesting Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards’ treatment of anti-pipeline activists.ย Credit: ยฉย Julieย Dermanskyย 

Julie-Dermansky-022
Julie Dermansky is a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers Universityโ€™s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Visit her website at www.jsdart.com.

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