Activists demonstrating against a contentious natural gas pipeline in West Texas have asked their Facebook followers for gas money, so they can relocate to Kansas.
Members of Two Rivers Camp – Stop Trans-Pecos Pipeline have started a donation page on Facebook requesting money to finance their relocation to the Sunflower State, saying they need cash for fuel. Other protesters “got stuck” and now need “some help with gas money,” the group wrote in a post March 29.
“We could use some help with gas …” the group wrote in the post.
Two Rivers was one of the groups leading the charge against the Trans-Pecos pipeline, a 148-mile project transporting natural gas through the Big Bend region in Texas to Mexico. The group’s members were trying to turn the project into the next Dakota Access Pipeline, which was developed by the same group — Energy Transfer Partners — that is building Trans-Pecos.
Demonstrators hoped to use DAPL-style tactics against Trans-Pecos. In particular, they worked to erect makeshift campsites near the project’s construction site, and planned non-violent “direct actions” against those building it.
The Two Rivers campsite popped up a month after the Army Corps of Engineers initially rejected the previously approved DAPL project, which was a nearly 1,200-mile-long pipeline. But President Donald Trump eventually approved the multi-billion project to carry Bakken oil from the Dakotas to Illinois.
Activists and members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe spent months railing against the $3.7 billion DAPL project, based on the belief the pipeline would trample tribal grounds and potentially poison the tribe’s primary water supply.
Some energy analysts believe Two Rivers’ request for gas is telling, especially considering the lines they are protesting would make their own travel less expensive.
Supporters of Trans-Pecos never wanted the protesters in the Lone Star State to begin with, Steve Everley, a spokesman for Texas for Natural Gas, told The Daily Caller News Foundation. He acknowledged the ridiculousness of Two Rivers’ request.
“It’s obviously funny that they are crisscrossing the country to protest pipelines, using gasoline that costs a lot less thanks to fracking and pipeline infrastructure,” Everley said.
The Trans-Pecos pipeline is scheduled to come online as early as Friday.
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