Nancy Lawrence joined a few hundred others at Pepper Tree Plaza in San Pedro on Friday, March 6, 2020, to rally against the fossil fuel industry and to promote action on climate change. The rally was organized by Greenpeace USA and Fire Drill Fridays. Celebrities that added their voice to the cause included Jane Fonda, Diane Lane, Lily Tomlin, Rosanna Arquette and Tom Waterston.

(Photo by Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images)

At a Glance

Kentucky was the first state to sign legislation, and implemented severe fines for those that damage or tamper with them.Later that week, South Dakota followed suit with two laws this month that could infringe upon the right to protest. In West Virginia, anyone found guilty of causing “damage, destruction, vandalization, defacing or tampering” that totals $2,500 or more could be fined $20,000 or more.

As the country has shifted into full-coronavirus mode, Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia all passed new laws meant to discourage and even criminalize protests against the fossil fuel industry. More states are set to follow suit.

The legislation imposes new penalties for protesters including jail time in some cases.

, according to the Huffington Post. On March 16, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear signed legislation that designated natural gas or petroleum pipelines as “key infrastructure assets.” As such, causing damage that totals more than $1,000 or tampering “in a manner that renders the operations harmful or dangerous” will lead to felony charges of “criminal mischief in the first degree.”

South Dakota followed with two laws this month that could infringe upon the right to protest. On March 18, Republican Gov. Kristi Noem signed a bill that and increases the charges for "substantial interruption or impairment" of these facilities to felonies. The law expands the previously understood definition of critical infrastructure to now include most oil, gas or utility equipment.

The second bill, , defines a riot as "any intentional use of force or violence by three or more persons, acting together and without authority of law, to cause any injury to any person or any damage to property.” The bill also creates a new felony offense for "incitement to riot," according to the U.S. Protest Law Tracker.

West Virginia was next, and on March 25, Republican Gov. Jim Justice approved legislation that also assigned the same “critical infrastructure” designation to many oil, gas and pipeline facilities. Anyone found guilty of causing “damage, destruction, vandalization, defacing or tampering” that totals $2,500 or more could be fined $20,000 or more.

The right to protest sits at the epicenter of democratic freedom, and. Other countries, too, and , are seeing social disruption as democratic processes and rights in response to COVID-19.

This wave of legal hop scotch came as the epicenter of the COVID-19 breakout moved to the United States.

The White House was not without its environmental spite amid the pandemic, either. , ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to stop enforcing polluting regulations, approve mining projects, auction off new drilling leases and revive a forgotten fight over auto emission standards, the New York Times reported.

“While we are all paying attention to COVID-19 and the congressional stimulus packages, state legislatures are quietly passing fossil-fuel-backed anti-protest laws,” Connor Gibson, the researcher at Greenpeace USA who tipped HuffPost off to the bills’ passage, said by email Friday. “These laws do nothing new to protect communities. Instead they seek to crack down on the sort of nonviolent civil disobedience that has shaped much of our nation’s greatest political and social victories.”

The Huffington Post, who initially broke the story, analyzed that the were not a coincidence.

“As climate change projections grew more dire and the bloody 2016 fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline became a new Alamo cry for environmentalists, the fossil fuel industry’s political allies began promoting state legislation to restrict protests.

“Oklahoma passed the first legislation protecting pipelines as critical infrastructure in 2017. Shortly after, the American Legislative Exchange Council, the conservative policy shop funded by big business and right-wing billionaires, drafted a generic bill called the .”

According to the , 11 states have enacted similar "critical infrastructure" legislation that limits the ability to protest.