Last week, an Alabama energy utility won a temporary order preventing a newspaper publishing information (legally obtained from public records) about the utility’s pipelines. The utility argued that the order was necessary on national security grounds, because terrorists might find “critical gas infrastructure” and blow it up*. (In unrelated news, Alagasco has recently acquired rights to several bridges on the East Coast and is looking to sell.) For context, the Supreme Court held fortyish years ago that the federal government could not constitutionally block publication of illegally obtained information that had real national security implications.
This is just the latest in a series of restrictions on speech obtained and enforced on the behalf of energy companies. Energy companies that ruin homeowners’ water supplies routinely sue them to keep them quiet. Communities who don’t want massive new fracking projects built nearby get slapped with lawsuits too. (Occasionally a homeowner leading a revolt against an energy company turns out to be the CEO of that energy company - he might do okay, especially since he’s in it with a former House majority leader.)
The problem is that, CEOs and politicians aside, people have very few tools to protect themselves in court. This results in people who are actually suffering harm from a corporation constantly having to look over their shoulders and worry about who they might piss off. Worse yet, when an energy utility screws up and blows up a couple dozen houses and kills a few people, it usually has political connections to limit the consequences of its bad behavior.
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* The best part: the Montgomery Advertiser requested this information as part of a pipeline safety series - you know, reporting on things that actually do affect the safety of ordinary Americans.
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