Last year, Memphis blocked the construction of a major pipeline. Tennessee lawmakers don’t want that to happen again.

Last summer, Memphis did something rare: it cancelled a major oil pipeline project from a multi-billion-dollar corporation.

The decision was celebrated by some Memphis residents and denounced by the fossil fuel company behind the project.

Now, Tennessee lawmakers have introduced legislation that would preempt local governments from blocking future projects.

“The Memphis situation alerted those folks in this industry to what could happen if planned projects … can be interrupted by municipalities somewhere along the way,” said Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville, during a subcommittee meeting on Wednesday. He claims the legislation, which he sponsored, is in the interest of national security, a common justification promoted by companies building pipelines.

The bill, H.B. 2246, was initially filed in January as a directive to the Department of Economic and Community Development to conduct a study about the current infrastructure of utilities in the state.

Then, in a subcommittee last week, the bill was amended into something completely different.

“What it was amended into was taking away all local communities’ ability to weigh in, in any way, regarding the placement of dangerous, toxic fossil fuel infrastructure in their communities,” said Scott Banbury, of Tennessee’s Sierra Club. “This is broad overreach.”

Banbury describes the legislation as a “caption bill,” or a bill that is rewritten by an amendment that can be obscured from public oversight. As of Monday evening, the proposed language for the amendment had not been posted to the legislature’s page for the bill.

The House Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee will discuss this legislation at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively, on Tuesday. 

If passed, the bill could have swift ramifications as pipeline fights begin to ramp up across the state. The Tennessee Valley Authority is currently considering replacing its coal plants with gas plants, which would require new pipelines to cut through communities — including ones right outside of Nashville, like the proposed pipeline for the Cumberland Fossil Plant site.