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Editorial comment

It has been 50 years since the first humans set foot on the Moon’s dusty surface, a scientific leap into the unknown watched intently by over 600 million people across the globe. At Tranquility Base, and every landing site since – of which there are more than one hundred – the footprints, rover tracks, probes and other equipment that has been left on the Moon have zero protection from any legislation. At any point, the footprints can be tainted and the equipment hampered by future landings. Whilst the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 states that no one country or organisation holds ownership of the Moon, the objects physically placed on or orbiting it remain the property of the country that did so. The sites of human activity on the Moon are both ongoing scientific experiments and simply hold invaluable data; either way their preservation is paramount, yet laws of protection are unwritten.


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Between Elon Musk’s intention to colonise Mars and Jeff Bezos’ goal to launch rockets full of tourists to the Moon, the boom in space exploration and increased human activity is evident. It is seemingly essential, therefore, that the current space treaty needs to be refined and updated for the 21st Century space race.

The call for stronger laws is not just restricted to the Galaxy; the oil and gas industry is witnessing a rise in legislation on grounds of pipeline security and civilian safety.

With US crude oil production breaking records, this increase in production is creating a significant output of associated gas, often more than is of value, with companies disposing of this through flaring. Cost and capacity are two justifications why companies are flaring their excess natural gas. Some argue that it is more profitable to flare gas than to buy space on a pipeline, as is the current permit dispute between Exco Resources Inc. and Williams Cos., whilst others blame pipeline bottlenecks for curbing capacity.

Protest disruptions to pipeline operations do little to ease the bottleneck, with oil and gas flows interrupted and construction approval processes dragged out. In the US, activists who block pipeline ROWs, turn off valves and vandalise critical infrastructure are being met with stricter laws and criminal prosecution. Tennessee, Indiana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas have passed laws this year that increase the penalties for anti-pipeline protestors. The law in Texas, coming into force on 1 September 2019, will make it a criminal offence, on par with attempted murder, if an activist is alleged to have set out to damage a pipeline facility. Meanwhile, South Dakota’s legislation involves fining organisations rumoured to have conspired with activists, with the money then used to construct the pipelines that the activists were protesting against.

Pipelines are present in every US state, other than Hawaii, and in each one of these states it is criminal to trespass or damage private property. With pipelines largely installed underground, there is an argument that the location of the pipeline is not always obvious. This is of particular concern in Louisiana, where legislation dictates it a criminal offence to be anywhere on the state’s 125 000 miles of pipelines, with a five-year prison sentence possible.1

Since 2017, at least 17 states have introduced laws that criminalise pipeline protests and disruption of pipeline operations, however, change at the federal level could also be on the horizon, following the US Department of Transportation’s plan to reauthorise the current pipeline safety law – the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act.

While the US is awash with new laws and legislation revisions at a multitude of levels, laws of the Galaxy barely exist. But with the Moon currently housing items from the European Space Agency, Russia, China, Japan, India and the US, and the future of humans in space only expected to grow, it would be beneficial for laws of international proportion to be implemented, perhaps prior to our relocation to Mars.

 

  1. The Guardian, ‘Protesters as terrorists: growing number of states turn anti-pipeline activism into a crime’, 8 July 2019.