Days after Oklahoma Congressmen Frank Lucas and Markwayne Mullin and 78 others in the House expressed concern about the safety of America’s pipelines, a new database was released by Energy Builders that tracks criminal attacks on the energy infrastructure.
Called the Energy Infrastructure Incident Reporting Center, the project’s unveiling came after members of the House wrote Attorney General Jeff Sessions with questions about the security of the oil and gas pipeline system.
Energy Builders says its system uses public sources, independent reporting and verification and firsthand accounts in documenting a number of recent high-profile energy infrastructure attacks.
Toby Mack, President and CEO of EEIA said the incidents of eco-terrorism, sabotage and arson are on the rise “as criminal tactics have become a regular feature of pipeline protests, leaving taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars and potentially endangering lives, the environment and our national security.
He cited the April incident where $145,000 in damage was caused when equipment was set afire. In another case, someone used a torch to cut a hole in the Dakota Access pipeline near Des Moines, Iowa.
In February, an anti-pipeline activist fired a large caliber rifle at the Sabal Pipeline in Marion County Florida. Two other protesters infiltrated a construction site and climbed inside the Sabal Pipeline where they vandalized part of the pipe.
The most significant damage totaled $2 million to bulldozers and earth-moving equipment along the Dakota Access Pipeline site last fall.