Activists Say New Laws To Protect Critical Infrastructure Aim To Silence Them

Greenpeace activists in Texas recently rappelled off a key bridge over the Houston Ship Channel, unfurling streamers and hanging in midair in a scene that looked kind of like high-rise window washers meets Cirque de Soleil. Their aim was to protest the oil and gas that funnels through the waterway every day by disrupting bridge and water traffic.

"The reason we're here is because the era of fossil fuels needs to end," said protester Rico Sisney in a Facebook Live video he recorded as he swung from a wire off Houston's Fred Hartman Bridge.

The Houston channel stretches from the city to the sea, and is home to refineries from global oil companies such as Exxon Mobile and Shell. More oil is exported through it than anywhere else in the country. The group had intended to stay for 24 hours to block that flow.