Critical Criminology: State‐Facilitated Corporate Crime, Environmental Racism, and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline

Abstract

Critical criminology continues to focus on the intersections of race, class, and green harms, as this analysis provides a more complete framework for understanding the role of state violence in capitalist projects. This article utilises the frameworks of environmental racism and state‐facilitated corporate crime to analyse the proposed 600‐mile natural gas pipeline, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). We focus on the narratives of the corporations and state in pursuing the project, including dispelling the myth that natural gas is ‘clean’. We also highlight the project's disproportionate social and environmental impact on poor and black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) communities. We end by discussing the state's role in facilitating the project through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).