Texas environmental leader Louis Moncivias Gutierrez is targeting local groups and individual members of communities along the path of Kinder Morgan’s proposed Permian Highway pipeline that do not share his blind opposition to the project. Speaking to his followers in a recent Facebook post, Gutierrez said he planned to make a “list” of his opponents, including a local fire department:
“We’re not just going to monitor the pipeline companies or the contractors that are involved so we can start bringing up who has got the contracts, we’re also monitoring who is a part of it, which individual from your community – from Wimberley, from Kyle, to Blanco – which members of your community are getting funds and supporting the Kinder Morgan pipeline, that’s the recon that we want, that’s the scouting that we want. This is what we’re trying to do right now. We’re building our team to be able to put an entire list – we want to be able to say, ‘look, Susie K is for the pipeline and Susie K is a part of Blanco administrator from the school district or from the volunteer fire department.’ As we know, the volunteer fire department or fire department in Blanco had a fundraiser, and who was a part of the fundraiser? Who was one of the sponsors? Kinder Morgan. We want to be able to put a name on a list of each individual people from all areas, from all regions who are simply for it, who are benefitting from the Kinder Morgan Permian [Highway] pipeline. We want a list of those individuals in our hands. We want video of them, and we want to be able to confront them in our way to be able to ask them those questions, to interview them, to put them on the spot so to speak. And this is one of the ways that we have found out that works, so that’s what we’re going to move forward with.”
Gutierrez’s plan expands on his previous intentions to “scout” Kinder Morgan employees so he could “take this to the front porch” of their houses. He recently offered “all expense payed” for anyone willing to serve as “scout” for his newly filed non-profit organization.
Gutierrez may struggle in his attempts to target “individual people from all areas…who are benefitting from the Kinder Morgan Permian [Highway] pipeline,” as the pipeline is projected to result in $42 million in annual tax revenue once in service, benefitting all Texans.
Gutierrez has a long history of questionable tactics in his activism, having previously vowed to violate laws, admitted to being part of a criminal smuggling network across the U.S.-Mexico border, and praised the attempted bombings of prominent political figures in October 2018.
