In Texas, two water protectors were arrested Saturday after locking themselves to heavy machinery to delay the construction of the Trans-Pecos pipeline, which is slated to carry natural gas under the Rio Grande and across the U.S.-Mexico border, where it will then continue to export terminals on Mexico’s Pacific Coast. Local residents and members of the Society of Native Nations have set up a protest camp, the Two Rivers Camp, to block the Trans-Pecos pipeline, which is being built by Energy Transfer Partners, the same company constructing the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. This is Mark Glover with the Big Bend Defense Coalition during Saturday’s lockdown.
Mark Glover: “We’re trying to bring awareness to the people that the fact is the oil and gas industry is the strongest entity in the world, and they control this planet, that if we don’t do something soon, we’re going to wish we had done something a lot sooner.”
Trans-Pecos is one of two pipelines Energy Transfer Partners is currently building in Texas. Construction of the second one, the Comanche Trail pipeline, was temporarily halted in November by federal authorities, after construction caused the collapse of a canal and concerns about the potential poisoning of the El Paso water supply.