Oil from Line 3 keeps flowing

(Photo courtesy)

By James Giago Davies,
Native Sun News Today Correspondent

MINNEAPOLIS, MN—Oil has been flowing across Minnesota through the newly built Line 3 replacement pipeline for over a month now. Tribal and environmental groups have been teamed up to protest the pipeline construction for several years, but their efforts failed to garner the support of both the Trump and Biden administrations.
Last week Line 3 protestors confronted Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar at a Democratic fund raiser and she walked off stage. They had confronted her in an elevator a few weeks before that. Democratic Senator Tina Smith was confronted at an academic event over Line 3 in October and left the stage. In September, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was heckled by a protestor over his refusal to support blocking pipeline construction and quit his fund-raising speech after just a few minutes. Democrats have been confronted by Line 3 protestors all across Minnesota because they hold the top power positions in the state, and because they have not opposed Line 3, while earnestly maintaining they support climate justice and reform.
This has created a curious political reality where a website like the Sentinel, which describes itself as “usually right-of-center, for a Conservative, Libertarian, Republican audience,” fully supports Klobuchar and the other Minnesota Democrats in their support of Line 3. The Sentinel wrote that opposition to Line 3 included tribal leaders: and that “these people are nuts.”
Line 3 runs over a thousand miles, from Hardesty, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin. It cuts through the heart of Minnesota Indian Reservation country. The old pipeline has been operational since 1968. Previous spills prompted Enbridge, the multinational Canadian company that operates the pipeline, to reduce capacity. In 1991, the pipeline was the source of the worst inland oil spill in US history, at Grand Rapids, Minnesota. This was one of 24 leaks over the pipeline’s history and so construction began in December 2020, of a replacement pipeline that began operation last month with the full support of the Biden Administration. According to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Line 3 pipeline has spilled over eight million gallons of oil over its 53-year history.
Five Ojibwe bands have been in opposition to Line 3 for many years. Although a Cultural Resources Survey has been completed, this does not speak to the environmental and health threats from the pipeline. In 2017 the Public Utilities Commission approved the pipeline replacement, and the tribes were unified in their concern and challenged the replacement in court. However, that unified opposition began to break down in 2018, as the Fond du Lac band signed a right-of-way agreement with Enbridge and the Leech Lake band agreed to drop opposition as long as the old pipeline was removed from their reservation.
In October, longtime Native environmental activist Winona LaDuke told Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman: “…on one hand, the Biden administration is like, ‘We are going to have Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but we’re still going to smash you in northern Minnesota and smash the rest of the country.’ Same thing, you know, Klobuchar and Smith, the two Minnesota senators, shameful their lack of courage, not only for Indigenous people but for the planet…”
Stop Line 3, the leading activist group opposing the pipeline said on their website: “All pipelines spill. Line 3 isn’t about safe transportation of a necessary product, it’s about expansion of a dying tar sands industry. Line 3 would contribute more to climate change than Minnesota’s entire economy. Minnesota’s own Department of Commerce found our local market does not need Line 3 oil. We need to decommission the old Line 3 and justly transition to a renewable, sustainable economy. Line 3 would violate the treaty rights of Anishinaabe peoples and nations in its path — wild rice is a centerpiece of Anishinaabe culture, it grows in numerous watersheds Line 3 seeks to cross. It’s well-past time to end the legacy of theft from and destruction of indigenous peoples and territories. “
Regardless of which political party holds the White House, or controls Congress, the policy concerning Line 3 support has not changed. Tribes, placed between a rock and a hard place, must decide between what tribal representatives have called “the lesser of two evils,” either cutting a deal that would help their respective reservation, if not the others, or making the best arrangement they can with Enbridge given the operation of the replacement pipeline is now reality.
The argument for support of the pipeline centers on job creation, tax revenue and greater transportation safety. A 2017 study by the University of Minnesota Duluth, touting that thousands of jobs would be created by Line 3, was funded by Enbridge, and they supplied the data. Investigative journalists uncovered these facts—the University did not supply them. The previous Environmental Impact Statement concluded that the pipeline would result in “negligible impact on per capita household income.”
Enbridge has claimed they were overtaxed in the past, and sought satisfaction in court, but despite that, supporters project Enbridge will pay almost $20 million in property tax, just in the first year of replacement pipe operation.
Even Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau asserts pipes are safe in relation to the alternative, rail transport. Trudeau called rail transport “less economic, and more dangerous for communities,” and, “higher in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than modern pipelines would be.”
With the pipeline operating, and no political support forthcoming from either party, except from Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, groups concerned about the environmental impact of the pipeline will struggle to find long term strategy to contest operation. Stop Line 3 concludes: “We can keep organizing, educating, and advocating to stop Line 3 and build the future we want. Legal and grassroots efforts have kept Enbridge’s Line 3 construction at bay — it was supposed to be complete in 2017. We are holding events in our homes, community centers, churches, schools, and online. We are talking to our politicians, speaking up at hearings, marching in protests, taking nonviolent direct action together, and reporting Enbridge’s activity along the proposed route. We are teaching and learning from each other. We are growing food and investing in renewable energy. Wherever you are and whatever your skill set, there is a place for you in the movement to stop Line 3. “

(Contact James Giago Davies at skindiesel@msn.com)

The post Oil from Line 3 keeps flowing first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

Visit Original Source