West Texas Residents Raise a Fight Over Another Trans-National Pipeline

Inside Climate News: James Spriggs has refused to allow the Trans-Pecos pipeline to be built across his land in Marfa, Texas. Credit: Jessica Lutz/Big Bend Conservation Alliance.

It was a late afternoon in July when James Spriggs, a West Texas rancher, was driving home and got a call from a representative of Energy Transfer Partners, a pipeline company based in Dallas. The man on the line issued him an ultimatum, Spriggs said: sign an agreement giving the company access to build a pipeline through his ranch in Marfa or face a court order in 48 hours.

"I said, 'Then send the court order and the sheriff,'" Spriggs recalled. "My last nerve had come to an end."

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