Water Protectors are Making an Urgent Call to Action

THE FIGHT TO STOP THE LINE 3

BIG OIL’S LAST STAND IN MINNESOTA? 

By Kevin Whelan 

Tribal nations, community and environmental groups in Minnesota have fought for six years to stop Canadian oil giant Enbridge Energy from building the massive Line 3 pipeline in Northern Minnesota, to take oil from Canada’s tar sands region to Superior, Wis. 

The pipeline violates several treaties with the Ojibwe people that establish their right to hunt, fish, and gather along the proposed route.The pipeline would cross 200 bodies of water, including the Mississippi River twice. 

If built, Line 3 would carry hundreds of thousands of barrels a day of tar sands crude oil -- some of the dirtiest oil in the world -- and would contribute the equivalent of 50 coal plants worth of carbon pollution to the atmosphere. Its carbon footprint would exceed the entire state of Minnesota’s and, like Keystone XL, would extend the economic viability of the ultra-polluting crude oil source in a way that one expert famously called “game over for the climate.” 

GOVERNOR WALZ AUTHORIZES CONSTRUCTION DESPITE LEGAL CHALLENGES

The fight against Line 3 has gone on for seven years, but took a sharp new turn when the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) issued water crossing permits on November 12, 2020 and the Army Corps of Engineers issued permits on November 23, 2020. 

The project faces ongoing litigation over grave errors in the Public Utility Commissions Certificate of Need and other issues by Friends of the Headwaters, Sierra Club, and Honor the Earth, with the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians, the Youth Climate Intervenors and the State of Minnesota’s own Department of Commerce

The Minnesota Department of Commerce (DOC) had joined the opposition to Line 3 before the Public Utlities Commission under the Dayton administration after their analysis calculated the social cost of climate damage at $287 billion. The DOC then joined in the lawsuit when the PUC over-ruled the recommendations of its own Adminstrative Law Judge to approve the project. Governor Walz faced legal deadlines to refile the suit at the start of his term in 2019 and again in Augst 2020, and each time, after extensive public discussion and pressure from both sides, stayed the course keeping the Commerce Department in the lawsuit. Walz said in 2019 projects like Line 3 "don't only need a building permit to forward, they also need a social permit."

Reaction to the move to build the pipeline while it is still under litigation--a hearing on key cases is expected in April--was swift. The bulk of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA)’s Environmental Justice Advisory Group resigned in protest over the permitting decision, saying in a letter to MPCA Commissioner Laura Bishop that “we cannot continue to legitimize and provide cover for the MPCA’s war on Black and brown people.” (Article.) 

Pipeline opponents rallied at the Governor’s Mansion on November 14 following the MPCA’s decision to issue water crossing permits for Line 3. (Press: CBS;The MAC Weekly).

Red Lake Band of Chippewa and White Earth Band of Ojibwe and other organizations litigating against Line 3 filed a request for a stay of construction while their cases are being heard in court, but were gravely disappointed in the decision by Governor Tim Walz  to note allow the Commerce Department to join the request for a stay. Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, publicly reaffirmed her opposition to the project. 

Despite this opposition, the State issued the last permits on at the end of November and the Canadian corporation Enbridge, that had been positioning pipes and equipment for years of “pre-construction”, quickly began construction transporting thousands of out-state workers into Minnesota in the midst of an increasingly dire COVID crisis. 

COVID CONCERNS DISREGARDED  

On December 2nd, Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate held a socially distanced media event and rally in front of the governor’s residence in St. Paul.

Speakers at the event said more than 4,000 Enbridge workers living and working in close quarters has the potential to develop into a super-spreader event. They said if average Minnesotans and small businesses were being asked to limit their movements and even curtail holiday celebrations and travel, “big oil” could also do its part in stopping the virus’ spread across northern Minnesota. The health professionals delivered a petition from statewide medical professionals and scientists in support of an appeal by Northern Minnesota residents and health providers, and met with the Department of Health. Later that day, Enbridge updated its COVID compliance plan in response to the critiques, though the on-paper commitments did not reassure the health providers. (Video; Press: Guardian ;Star Tribune).

GRASSROOTS RESISTANCE GROWS

As legal cases continue to play out, long standing grassroots resistance to the pipeline entered a new phase with public actions in multiple locations and dozens of arrests of peaceful water protectors. Native American Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) organizations have led the movement with groups like the Giniw Collective, Honor the Earth, Rise Coalition and Gitchi Gumi Scouts leading public actions along the construction route along with organizations including MN350 

Action and Northfield Against Line 3.