The right wing has been using the specter of eco-terrorism, among many other cudgels, to hamstring President Joanna Hogan before her historic first term is even off the ground. Though she already backtracked ferociously on Green New Deal promises made during the Democratic primary, the Republicans have been merciless at tying Hogan and the GND to the bombings of pipelines and wellheads.
Nebraska republican Bob Syracuse described the instances of sabotage as “the most dangerous terrorist activity since 9/11.” Along with fifteen cosponsors, Syracuse has introduced eco-terror legislation. The bombings have caused no fatalities or injuries.
Federal law enforcement now presumes these are not copycat attacks being carried out under the same loose umbrella. It believes the actions are centrally coordinated.
“6Degrees is not a fringe conspiracy theory,” Loren Victor Love, CEO of Xuritas Corporate Services, told CNN. “This is happening, and us Democrats must face up to the danger to the nation’s energy infrastructure.” Love’s company has received numerous contracts to protect pipelines, and he is widely viewed as the party’s best chance to pick up a Senate seat in Montana in 2026.
President Hogan, feeling the pressure and playing into her “tough-as-old-boots, monster-truck-loving grandma” persona she cultivated as a candidate, has trumpeted the creation of a Joint Terrorism Task Force. Working out of a fusion center in Denver, the FBI, ATF, and local officials from seven states have dubbed their investigation Operation Weathermen, a reference to both the legendary antiwar activists and the new group’s focus on attacking the fossil-fuel infrastructure that is radically altering weather patterns. Crafty nicknames aside, the bureau has turned up no further prints or DNA, and Kroll’s cooperation has yielded little insight into the group’s operational core.
Kroll is described by friends and family as a quiet, conservative Mormon student and husband, who took to social media to denounce the oil and gas giant he blamed for his wife’s miscarriage. In his plea agreement, Kroll claimed he was recruited online and never met his handlers in person, according to a source close to the investigation. The FBI says it is looking into a number of leads.
Where previous environmental sabotage has been undisciplined and unfocused, 6Degrees has been tactical and precise, striking surgically and vanishing. Their targets are uniformly pipeline infrastructure, and as Wisniewski pointed out, they call ahead of time to warn operators to shut off the pipelines they’re about to destroy.
“We condemn these attacks, absolutely and without qualification,” said Rekia Reynolds, a spokesperson for A Fierce Blue Fire, the climate justice organization du jour. “However, since 9/11, the word ‘terrorist’ has been redefined again and again. It’s been used against Black and brown people with increasing frequency, even as right-wing white supremacist violence has never been worse. The aim of all this oil and gas legislation is to extend surveillance and harassment to nonviolent activists. We can’t allow law enforcement to become a tool of oil and gas companies, who are the real criminals of our planet.”
During the past decade as protests over the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines heated up, states have put together a host of antiterrorism laws of dubious constitutional legitimacy. Several states have made it a felony to protest within two thousand yards of an energy producer. “Eco-terror” legislation written by the American Legislative Exchange Council in Texas has attempted to recategorize civil disobedience as terrorism. The language singles out “all activities intended to influence government policy or damage economic interests by coercion.” It also widens the net by outlawing action “that publicizes or promotes terrorism against energy producers.”
Senator Syracuse’s proposal—the Protecting American Energy Independence Act—copies this language while also aiming to create a registry for eco-terrorists and environmental monkeywrenchers similar to that used for sex offenders. If you sat in a tree in Eugene, Oregon, when you were eighteen you could be on this list along with a photo and a public address. If you carried a sign tying racial justice to climate justice in a Black Lives Matter protest, you could potentially expect to be a surveillance target. Nonviolent organizers have come under FBI scrutiny. As the threat of disruptive civil disobedience has emerged, agents have begun to keep tabs on individuals in these movements, intimidating people at their workplaces and gathering intelligence from public records.
“Energy is key to America’s security and prosperity, and therefore these businesses need enhanced protection. They should be viewed as part of the critical infrastructure we need to keep America safe,” Syracuse said while introducing the bill on the Senate floor.
Diving into the online forums, it’s not hard to see why a company like Envige is worried. For the environmental left, action on the climate crisis has advanced at a terrifyingly slow pace. When they’re not speculating that anarchist rapper Haydukai is the group’s ringleader (his songs apparently contain coded instructions) or spinning conspiracies involving Mark Ruffalo (he’s supposedly bankrolling the operations, hence all the new Hulk sequels), they clearly see these new monkeywrenchers as folk heroes.
“It had to come to ecotage,” writes one user, Isai89. “People were kidding themselves if they thought the powers that be and their political minions would ever back down. They will sooner support true fascists rising through the ranks of their political parties. Now at least we know the only path is war.”
One imagines Isai89 will soon be getting a call from the FBI.I
ON THE PLAINS BETWEEN TWO STATES, WE LEAVE THE BLACKENED crater behind. Wisniewski and I return to his truck and start back to town on roads that are sheets of ice glittering in the sunset. Envige is offering a million-dollar reward for information leading to the arrests of the perpetrators. It has contracted with Xuritas to conduct expensive nighttime patrols of all its operations.
“The problem is how do you guard it all?” wonders Wisniewski. “These security costs are a huge expense in a tight energy market.” His voice is low and mournful. “This is people’s livelihoods they’re attacking, and no one cares, and no one’s stopping it, and they keep pulling it off like they’re apparitions. Obviously, it makes me afraid of what might be next.”
I. An FBI spokesperson had the following response to multiple queries about its targeting of activists: “The FBI has a very restrictive media policy, so I apologize that my answers will not provide the details you’re hoping to receive. The FBI takes care to distinguish between constitutionally protected activities and illegal activities undertaken to further an ideological agenda. The FBI has the authority to conduct an investigation when it has reasonable grounds to believe that an individual has engaged in criminal activity or is planning to do so. This authority is based on the illegal activity, not on the individual’s political views, position, or any other beliefs.”