An urgent call to action

Excerpted from a June 2018 sign-on letter published in the Star Tribune of Minneapolis

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To Our Fellow Minnesotans,

Soon the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will vote on the Line 3 piepline project proposed by Canadian corporation nbridge.  It would be a new 36-inch tar sands oil pipline sending tar sands oil through the MIssissippi headwaters, sensitive wetlands, valued forests, and indigenous treaty lands on its way to Lake Superior.  

Minnesota’s future matters more than Enbridge’s profit margin

Minnesota has some of the most pristine freshwater in the world.  We are known for our lakes, our forests, our wetlands, our wild rice.  We fish, we hunt, we camp, we farm, we love our outdoors. We should be protecting what we have, not putting it at risk so a Canadian company can turn a buck.

The premise of Line 3 is that we need more oil, that the industry must expand.  That simply does not reflect our actual energy needs as we steadily become more efficient and focused on clean, renewable energy.  Minnesota’s own Department of Commerce (DOC) recommended that the state reject the Line 3 project because Enbridege failed to show any potential Line 3 benefits that would outweigh risks.  This new project would send the carbon pollution equivalent of 50 coal-fired plants into the atmosphere.

We will be left to deal with the effects of a spill.  Enbridge has a terrible spill record, but its project proposal leaves spill liability to Minnesotans.  Meanwhile, Enbridge fought in court to collect $55M it paid in taxes to Minnesota, and is pressuring some of our poorest counties to accept its new project.

Minnesota should respect tribal nations:  Enbridge’s consultation with Anishinaabe tribes does not equal consent.  Multiple directly impacted tribal nations have said no to Line 3. Over 500 religious leaders joined together asking the PUC to reject Line 3.

Clearly Enbridge knows many Minnesotans realize the company doesn’t have our best interests at heart:  at the 11th hour Enbridge offered to remove the old Line 3 for some landowners instead of its original plan to leave it in the ground to rot, and said it will hire Native Americans to work on the new line.  If Enbridge cares, it should put our state’s workers and labor unions to work removing the old Line 3 from private and tribal property and increase its renewables investment.