Would-be vandals and ecoterrorists, take note. Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg isn’t messing around if you want mess around with oil and gas equipment.

The Republican from Sterling is sponsoring Senate Bill 35 to elevate the charge of tampering with oil and gas equipment from a class 2 misdemeanor to a class 6 felony.

The charge should match the danger saboteurs can cause to a community. Sonnenberg said.

“You know as well as I do if you build up too much pressure on a pipeline it can explode or break,” he said. “My concern is that if you build up too much pressure on an oil or gas pipeline, that you have no business messing with, you are creating the potential to have a catastrophic event in those communities. That’s who we’re trying to protect.”

The penalty for a class 2 misdemeanor is three months to a year in jail and a fine between $250 and $1,000. A class 6 felony is a year to 18 months in prison, a fine between $1,000 to $100,000.

Vandalism and ecoterrorism have been back in the news. In September Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was charged with misdemeanor counts of criminal trespass and criminal mischief for spray painting equipment at a pipeline construction site near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

Stein responded by calling on authorities to “press charges against the real vandalism taking place at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation: the bulldozing of sacred burial sites and the unleashing of vicious attack dogs.”

Sonnenberg’s  bill is set for a hearing Feb. 16 at 1:30 p.m. before the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee. Sonnenberg happens to be the committee’s chairman.