Texas environmentalist Phillip Flagg was arrested at a pipeline protest in Virginia on Saturday. Flagg was charged with misdemeanor obstruction after locking himself to a structure on the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s right-of-way.
Flagg had previously lived in a tree to protest the same pipeline, stating he planned to physically stop the construction of the pipeline had no intention of coming down. It is unclear how long he was in the tree for.
On Monday, the pipeline protests in Virginia turned violent when one of Flagg’s fellow protestors, Jammie Hale, was charged with assaulting a Mountain Valley employee. After the incident, Hale stated:
“I just asked if he wanted to give me a try and it escalated so I pointed the cane that I was leaning on and the rest is history.”
Environmentalists in Texas have recently discussed similarly targeting employees of oil and gas companies.
