Bayou Bridge Pipeline Opponents File to Intervene in Hearing for Private Security Firm in Louisiana

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A broad base of advocacy groups opposed to Energy Transfer Partnersโ€™ (ETP) proposed Bayou Bridge pipeline continue to pressure officials inย Louisiana to deny the remaining permissions the companyย needs to build theย pipeline.

The groups are also trying to stop TigerSwan LLC, one of the security firms that ETP worked with in North Dakota, from obtainingย a permit to operate inย Louisiana.

ETP, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, intends to build a 162-mile pipeline across southern Louisiana. If built, the Bayou Bridge will be the last leg, carrying oil fracked in North Dakota toย Louisiana.ย 

Before the pipeline can be built, ETP needs a water quality certificate from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and a permit from the U.S. Army Corps ofย Engineers.

The company already obtained another required permit to operate fromย Louisiana Department of Natural Resources under the stateโ€™s Coastal Zoneย program, but that permit is being challenged vy a lawsuit spearheaded by the St. James community, where the pipeline will end, roughly 50 miles west of New Orleans.
ย 

TigerSwan inย Louisiana?

Meanwhile, TigerSwan is trying to obtain a permit fromย theย Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners to operate in theย state.ย 

The Board rejected TigerSwanโ€™s permit application in June. In part, the denial was based on the ongoingย litigation filed against the company by the North Dakotaย Private Investigative and Security Board for allegedly providing services without the requiredย license.ย 

Despite being turned down for a permit twice in North Dakota, TigerSwan operated on ETPโ€™s behalfย anyway.

A few days after TigerSwanโ€™s permit was denied in Louisiana, the company filed an appeal andย hired five lobbyists whoย work forย the lobbying firm Southernย Strategyย Group.

At a November 9 press conference atย the office of Louisianaโ€™s Democraticย Governor John Bel Edwards, groups opposing the Bayou Bridge pipeline, including the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Bold Louisiana, 350 New Orleans, Atchafalayaย Basinkeeper, Gulf Restoration Network, Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association – West, and Lโ€™eau Est La Vie (Water Is Life) Camp, announced that theย New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a petition to intervene on their behalf. CCR wants to ensure that the groups can participate in the permit appeals hearingย set for Decemberย 14.

Video:ย Anne Rolfes,ย director of the Louisiana Bucketย Brigade

โ€œTigerSwanโ€™s well-documented use of militarized surveillance tactics against ordinary people opposing pipelines across the country is cause for alarm,โ€ Anne Rolfes,ย director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, said at the press conference. โ€œAs concerned citizens from across Louisiana, we must be permitted to voice our opposition toย TigerSwan infiltrating our communities at the upcoming hearing.โ€ The group wants not only a seat at the table, but a platform at the hearing to voice its oppositionย toย TigerSwan.ย 

Pamela Spees, aย senior staff attorney with CCR whoย was raised inย Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of the communities thatย would be affected by the pipeline, told me: โ€œThe lines seem dangerously blurred betweenย law enforcement and private security firms when it comes toย dealing with pipelineย opposition.โ€

Spees found especially worrisome leaked documents published by The Intercept that revealed TigerSwan used counterterrorism tactics at Standing Rock, North Dakota, to โ€œdefeat pipelineย insurgencies.โ€

Blurred Lines Between Private Security and Lawย Enforcement

In October 2016, Greg Champagne, sheriff of St. Charles Parish and the 2016 president of the National Sheriffsโ€™ Association, went to Standing Rock, where he observed the police lines at the pipeline construction site. In published statements about his trip, Champagne voiced his support for ETPโ€™s project and held the water protectors in disdain. He made an unsubstantiated claim in a lengthy Facebook post:

โ€œDespite the statements coming from the media and protesters that they were completely peaceful and prayerful, it has been a fact that more militant protestors (terrorists) have destroyed property and physically beaten employees of the company in recentย weeks.โ€

TigerSwan is aย corporate donor to theย National Sheriffsโ€™ Associationโ€™sย $3.46 million budget,ย according to the associationโ€™s most recent tax forms. Underย Champagneโ€™s leadership, the association lobbied Congress for surplus military gear and other undisclosed issues related to the Dakota Access pipeline, according to a review of federal lobbying disclosure forms conducted by DeSmog reporter Steveย Horn.ย 

Joseph Lopinto, the newly elected sheriff of Jefferson Parish, andย former Republican state legislator,ย voiced support for the Bayou Bridge pipeline at a permitย hearing in February, where he claimed that protesters shot at law enforcement officers.ย โ€œWe donโ€™t want the same thing occurring in Louisiana,โ€ he said,ย while some at the hearing opposed to the pipeline yelled over him:ย โ€œLiar.โ€ย 

Video: ย Josephย Lopinto

Cherri Foytlin, director of the environmental advocacy group Bold Louisiana who also went to Standing Rock, told me that the โ€œwater protectors didnโ€™t instigateย violence.โ€

She contends that it is companies like TigerSwan that initiate conflicts to try to make theirย services seem needed. At the press conference Foytlin presented photos of water protectors at Standing Rock injured by security forces, includingย TigerSwan.

โ€œJustice is not what we saw at Standing Rock,โ€ Foytlin said. She wants to prevent similar events from taking place inย Louisiana.ย 

Video: Cherri Foytlin, Director of Boldย Louisiana

Foytlin and others opposed to the pipeline believe that TigerSwan is already operating in Louisiana. A report by Paste explains how a hit-piece video originally posted on the Facebook group โ€œLouisiana Firstโ€ was likely created by TigerSwan. The narrator is an actorโ€•not the person he claims to be in the video. It turns out the actor lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, not far from TigerSwan’sย headquarters.

The claims made about Foytlin in the video are largely false. For instance, though she is a paid employee of Bold Louisiana, she does not make $100,000 a year, not that she would mind bringing in that kind of money, sheย joked.


James โ€œSpiderโ€ Marks speaking at a Bayou Bridge pipeline permit hearing in February, 2017
ย 

Furthermore, Major Generalย James โ€œSpiderโ€ Marks (retired),ย who chairs TigerSwanโ€™s advisory board, testified in support of the Bayou Bridge pipeline at the Department of Natural Resources permit hearing, and published an op-ed in favor of the pipeline in The Daily Advertiser, a local Louisiana paper without disclosing his connection toย TigerSwan.

Marks claimed that many of the protesters were not from Louisiana, coloring the pipeline opposition as a bunch of troublemakers. โ€œNo Louisianan wants to live under the conditions that those unsuspecting North Dakota residents were subject to,โ€ he wrote.

Documents uncovered by reporters at The Intercept show that TigerSwan does public relations for its clients,ย including โ€œcounter-messagingโ€ likeย Marksโ€™ op-ed. The company also used โ€œmilitary-style counterterrorism measuresโ€ against protesters, and conducted โ€œsweeping and invasive surveillanceโ€ of them.

โ€œTigerSwan doesnโ€™t get to deny us our humanity in our state,โ€ Bold Louisianaโ€™s Foytlin said at the press conference. โ€œWe love this state. We love the water. We love our peopleโ€•they donโ€™t get to come in and crapย onย that.โ€

She called on water protectors from all over to come and stand with her on December 14 at TigerSwanโ€™s permit appealย hearing.

Though Marks and others like to claim Foytlin and other opponents to the pipeline are from out of state, it is TigerSwan and the likes of โ€œSpiderโ€ Marks who donโ€™t live inย Louisiana.

โ€œThey are the outsiders,โ€ Foytlin said. โ€œThey are mercenaries for oil and gasย companies.โ€ย 


Cherri Foytlin, Director of Bold Louisiana and Renate Heurich, with 350.org in front of the Louisiana Stateย Capitol

Every Tuesday for the last five weeks, members of the groups against the Bayou Bridge pipeline have met at Governor Edwardsโ€™ย office, asking him toย perform an Environmental Impact Studyย before final consideration of the pipeline is made.ย โ€œA very reasonable request,โ€ Foytlin pointedย out.

Edwards, a supporter of ETPโ€™s project, has used industry talking points to defend his stance in backing the pipeline, dismissing environmentalistsโ€™ concerns by claiming that pipelines are the safest way to transport oilย and gas and will createย jobs.

โ€œThe Department of Natural Resources is going to make absolutely sure that developers of the pipeline abide by allย of the state permit requirements, regulations, andย laws,โ€ Edwards said, according to an email sent to me by Shauna Sanford, theย governorโ€™s press secretary.ย 

In addition, Edwards also stated: โ€œWe are also going to make sure that the latest technologies and safety techniques are used in constructing the pipeline.โ€ But when asked what those technologies andย techniques are, I did not get aย reply.ย 

Blog photo credit: Press Conference on November 9, 2017 at Stateย Capitol

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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