EXCLUSIVE — House Republicans on the Oversight Committee are requesting a briefing from the FBI on the threat of ecoterrorism as the committee prepares to launch an investigation into possible threats against domestic energy infrastructure from the climate change movement.
In a letter obtained first by the Washington Examiner, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), national security subcommittee Chairman Glenn Grothman (R-WI), and Rep. Michael Waltz (R-FL) are requesting that FBI Director Christopher Wray set up a briefing on the threat to physical energy infrastructure and how it will affect national security.
“With radical environmentalists around the world commonly engaged in the destruction or
attempted destruction of art and other property, blocking transit, disrupting private gatherings, and delaying energy infrastructure projects, the Committee seeks to understand the threat that environmental violent extremists also pose to the physical energy infrastructure of the United States and implications for national security,” the House members wrote in the letter.
The committee’s investigation launch comes as the climate change movement makes its way into college and university campuses across the country. The members point to reports that a book, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, by activist Andreas Malm, is the required reading in several courses at multiple universities, such as Ohio State University.
A New York Times review of the book details that Malm argues the ruling class’s response to climate change has been inadequate, so the “proportionate and rational response should be to target fossil fuel infrastructure: Destroy fences around a power plant; occupy pipeline routes, as protesters did for the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines.”
Oversight members pointed to an FBI Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate bulletin issued to federal, state, and local authorities last year warning that a film adaptation of the book could “spark ecoterrorism” against U.S. energy infrastructure.
“In response to questioning by Rep. Michael Waltz at a March 12, 2024, hearing before
the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, you referred to this book and its
inclusion as required reading in universities as ‘totally unacceptable,’ and committed to
continuing to assess any related domestic terrorism threats and funding sources enabling those threats,” the lawmakers wrote.
The committee is asking for a briefing no later than April 22. Comer said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that the fact that Malm’s book is considered required reading is “dangerous and demented.”
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“Dissemination of this curriculum is a tinderbox for radical environmentalists and could likely lead to threats towards critical domestic infrastructure,” Comer said. “It is incumbent upon this Committee to ensure that the FBI is taking these threats from ecoterrorists seriously and a classified briefing in an appropriate setting is necessary to obtain this information.”
The letter comes as House Republicans discuss the political benefits of becoming more supportive of climate change, particularly as the matter becomes more salient for voters. Some have warned their colleagues against ignoring the topic, stating that the GOP cannot afford to have its “head in the sand” on the subject.
