Montana pipeline protester avoids jail, must pay restitution
BILLINGS, Mont. — An Oregon climate change activist, who was convicted of illegally shutting down a crude oil pipeline as part of a multi-state protest, avoided jail time and was ordered to pay $3,775 in restitution by a Montana judge on Tuesday.
State District Judge Daniel Boucher noted that defendant Leonard Higgins had no prior serious convictions as he handed down a three-year deferred sentence, said court clerk Rick Cook.
Higgins entered a fenced site near Big Sandy, Montana, in October 2016 and closed a valve on pipeline operated by Spectra Energy, now part of Texas-based Enbridge Energy. The pipeline carries oil from Canada’s tar sands region.
Activists simultaneously targeted other pipelines in Washington state, North Dakota and Minnesota, using civil disobedience to urge a halt to the use of tar sands crude — the most carbon-intensive, climate damaging form of oil.