House GOP Push FBI for Answers on Potential Eco-Terror Threats

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the "Annual Worldwide Threats Assessment" in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 11, 2024. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

House Oversight Committee Republicans are opening a new probe into the potential for eco-terrorist attacks within the United States, including attacks on energy infrastructure throughout the country.

In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on April 15, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.); National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Chairman Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.); and Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) raised the specter of a rising eco-terrorism threat and called for an FBI briefing on the matter.

The Republican lawmakers tied their concerns about eco-terrorism—terrorist activity carried out in support of environmentalist causes—to an April 2023 article by Rolling Stone magazine that alleges that the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate was one of several law enforcement agencies to raise concerns about the release of the film “How to Blow Up a Pipeline,” depicting a fictional eco-terrorist plot targeting an oil pipeline in west Texas.

According to Rolling Stone, the FBI’s bulletin about the film states that it has a “potential to inspire threat actors to target oil and gas infrastructure with explosives or other destructive devices.”

The film “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” was released in U.S. theaters in April 2023. While presenting a fictional series of events, the film production was based on the 2021 manifesto of Swedish climate scholar Andreas Malm, titled “How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire,” which criticizes nonviolent activism and advocates sabotage to hinder the fossil fuel industry. A summary provided by Mr. Malm’s publisher, Verso Books, describes Mr. Malm as a “saboteur of SUV tires and coal mines” who “argues that the strategic acceptance of property destruction and violence has been the only route for revolutionary change.”

A promotional website for the “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” film features a link to download Mr. Malm’s manifesto for free and a “Take Action” page showing a map of U.S. and Canadian pipeline routes and spill locations and links to learn about and “support” activists “resisting fossil fuel projects on the frontline.”

In their letter to Mr. Wray, the Republican lawmakers cited a February report by The Daily Wire indicating that Mr. Malm’s manifesto has been adopted as required reading for courses at multiple universities across the United States.

Mr. Waltz, who also serves on the House Intelligence Committee, questioned Mr. Wray about the inclusion of “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” as required reading in U.S. college courses during an annual threat assessment hearing on March 12. Mr. Wray responded that this development is “totally unacceptable” and, when asked if the bureau would look into potential eco-terrorist actions and funding, said, “We will certainly look into all forms of terrorism ... including funding.”

The new Republican letter now calls on Mr. Wray and the FBI to provide by April 22 specific details about the threat of eco-terrorism.

“With radical environmentalists around the world commonly engaged in the destruction or attempted destruction of art and other property, blocking transit, disrupting private gatherings, and delaying energy infrastructure projects, the Committee seeks to understand the threat that environmental violent extremists also pose to the physical energy infrastructure of the United States and implications for national security,” the Republican letter reads.

NTD News reached out to the FBI for comment about its reported eco-terrorism bulletin and the latest congressional briefing request, but the bureau declined to comment further on the matter.

NTD News also reached out to the House Oversight Committee’s Democratic minority for comment about the latest investigative efforts from the majority. The committee Democrats did not respond by press time.

From NTD News