In a victory for oil and gas companies, a proposal to expand criminal and civil penalties for damaging or impeding the operation of "critical infrastructure" such as oil pipelines won final passage in the Texas House on Tuesday.

House Bill 3557 comes in the wake of protests the past couple of years of major pipeline projects across the country, including ones that halted operations. On Tuesday, some activists protested the bill from the House gallery before being led away by law enforcement officers.

Under the bill, by Rep. Chris Paddie, R-Marshall, a person who trespasses on such facilities and intentionally destroys the facility or interrupts its operation could be charged with a third-degree felony. A corporation or association also found guilty could face fines of up to $500,000.

The bill “simply seeks to increase these penalties in an effort to deter these individuals from committing these crimes,” Paddie said this week on the House floor.

“This bill does not affect those who choose to peacefully protest for any reason,” he continued. “It attaches liability to those who potentially damage or destroy critical infrastructure facilities.”

Such damage, he said, “has the potential to cause harm and death to individuals, disrupt our economy, endanger national security and can harm our environment.”

Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, said the bill levied “extremely harsh punishment.”

Rep. Erin Zwiener, D-Driftwood, introduced an amendment Monday that would have protected landowners seeking to protest unwanted industrial operations on their land — she represents constituents battling pipeline eminent domain rules.

The amendment, she said, would protect the “landowner who perhaps turns their cows out during construction to intentionally mess with the operator, or the landowner who parks their truck in the way” of an industrial easement.

The amendment was turned away Monday, and the bill won final passage, by a vote of 90 to 51, on Tuesday.

But when it came up for that vote, opponents in the gallery chanted, “Kill the bill, save the land.”

“It’s an anti-protest bill, favoring the fossil fuel industry, favoring corporations over people. It’s over-criminalization,” Frankie Orona, the San Antonio-based executive director of the Society of Native Nations and one of the protesters, said in an interview.

The bill charges people who are “peacefully protesting, not hurting anybody, by locking themselves to a piece of machinery, and charging them with same type of charges for somebody charged with robbery or kidnap,” he said.

Some of the protesters Tuesday were given criminal trespass warnings by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Officials with the Texas Oil and Gas Association praised the bill’s passage.

“Texas’ critical infrastructure facilities such as agriculture systems, dams and water structures, manufacturing and refining facilities and fuel pipelines support Texas jobs, generate billions of dollars in tax revenues and provide products to Texans for use in our daily lives,” association president Todd Staples said. “Delays, stoppages and intentional damage caused by illegal activity are costly to Texas businesses and local governments and put employees of these facilities in danger.”