NPR

Environmentalists Provoke Pipeline Workers To Speak Up

As oil and gas pipeline projects increase, and more environmentalists protest, a Pipeliners union wants to make sure it's part of the public conversation.
Ed Coker is a job steward with Pipeliners Local Union 798. He's a third generation welder and a second generation member of the Pipeliners union.

The people who build oil and gas pipelines in the U.S. have worked in relative obscurity for decades. But a growing number of protests against pipelines are turning some of those workers into activists themselves.

The U.S. produces , according to the Energy Information Administration. That's led to a pipeline construction boom and a growing protest movement that's had some success delaying projects, notably the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.

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