Activists and local governments would have a tougher time stopping oil companies from building pipelines under a bill passed in the state Senate Thursday, March 24, which prohibits most local regulation of energy infrastructure.

The bill, from state Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R-Collierville) and state Sen. Ken Yager (R-Kingston), would ban rules that interfere with the “feasibility of the project,” but would allow “necessary rules or policies related to the electric or natural gas system.”

The legislation follows local laws passed last fall that sought to keep the Byhalia Connection Pipeline away from the aquifer that provides the city’s drinking water.

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The state law would not enable the immediate resurrection of the pipeline, which was abandoned last summer amid the pandemic and environmental activism from Memphis Community Against the Pipeline, Protect Our Aquifer and others.

The Memphis City Council enacted a wellhead protection overlay district and a requirement that companies get permits if their infrastructure would cross a public right-of-way. The City Council enacted a 1,500-foot setback from certain buildings in unincorporated parts of the county.

Allan Wade, the City Council’s lawyer, said the city’s laws would remain intact if the law were to take effect.

Yager said the legislation is important for the state’s economy.

He characterized activism and the subsequent local regulation as “micromanaging” and said energy companies usually have to deal with many local jurisdictions in addition to complying with federal laws such as the Clean Water Act and the Pipeline Safety Act.

“(The bill) implements, or enacts, a very focused prohibition on local government in order to ensure there is multi-jurisdictional integrity in these projects,” he said. “(These companies) have already gone through exhaustive federal regulatory control which, I might add, includes ample time for public comment.”

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The bill states: “A political subdivision of this state shall not, arising from or as a result of a local action, restrict, prohibit or otherwise impair the development and implementation of the types or sources of energy that may be used, delivered, converted, or supplied by (certain) entities.”

Among those entities are “a liquefied petroleum gas dealer, liquefied petroleum gas dispenser, or liquefied petroleum gas cylinder exchange operator (or) other liquid petroleum transmission, distribution, retail or storage entities.”

The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and the Tennessee Fuel and Convenience Store Association, which represents companies dependent on pipelines, support the bill. The Southern Environmental Law Center, the Sierra Club and local environmentalists are among its opponents.

It passed by a 22-7 vote. State Sen. Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) joined all six Democrats in opposing the bill.

Justin J. Pearson, of Memphis Community Against Pollution (formerly Against the Pipeline), told lawmakers March 15 the goals of the regulation weren’t to prohibit the pipeline altogether, but to protect the city’s drinking water from the crude oil.

“We know quite well what pipeline companies’ main motives are, and it does not have to do with the interest of Tennesseans,” Pearson said.

“This legislation, by eliminating local control, takes the power away from our duly elected officials, and gives it to executives in Texas or TransCanada or some of these other folks who don’t care anything about Tennesseans’ property or its people,” Pearson said.

The bill passed a House subcommittee March 2, but it has not yet been heard in the House Commerce Committee, which Vaughan chairs. It’s on the agenda for the committee’s hearing Tuesday, March 29.

Sarah Houston, executive director of Protect Our Aquifer, said this language is vague and companies would abuse it. The meaning of the word “impair,” for example, is unclear, she said.

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“We have concerns with that language and have asked Vaughan to change and remove that one word,” she said.

She also said she believed the county’s 1,500-foot setback rule would be illegal, and that Yager was exaggerating the extent to which federal environmental laws protect the aquifer.

The House and Senate are working on similar but slightly different versions, meaning they would have to be reconciled before lawmakers send the bill to Gov. Bill Lee.

Student organizers from Houston High School are planning to protest the bill Saturday, March 26, at 3 p.m. at the I AM A MAN Plaza near FedEx Forum.