Unable to win in the U.S. Congress, ALEC has turned to more easily influenced state governing bodies, according to The Center for Media and Democracy.
Following the Dakota Access Pipeline’s trail, six states are close to enacting or already have passed nearly identical bills clamping down on protest in North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Iowa, Louisiana, and Texas, according to The Center for Media and Democracy and the Texas House of Representatives.
Approved by ALEC, Americans for Prosperity, Koch Industries, Peabody Energy, US Chamber of Commerce, and Exxon Mobil in 2018, the copycat bill is dubbed the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, and it seeks to conceal actions and curtail dissent against the oil and gas industry, according to The Center for Media and Democracy.
“According to many of these legislators, these bills are a reaction to widespread protests against oil and gas infrastructure,” researcher and writer Connor Gibson of The Center for Media and Democracy wrote on March 15, 2019.