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People protest against the Enbridge Energy Line 3 oil pipeline project outside the Governor's Mansion on November 14, 2020 in St Paul, Minnesota. (Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Enbridge's Greenwashing Will Not Stand
You can't put a fire out and pour millions of barrels of tar sands on it at the same time.
Mar 07, 2021
There are now more than 130 Water Protectors facing criminal charges for protecting the land from the Line 3 tar sands pipeline. At the same time, the climate criminals are free to keep bulldozing through my peoples' sacred lands.
It is physically painful to witness the land being ripped apart, to see our sacred manoomin being irrevocably harmed by a corporation that cares for nothing but profit. It is also deeply powerful to stand with those putting their bodies on the line to defend the land.
For months now, we've been taking steady, constant direct actions to delay the construction of Line 3. In the freezing cold of a Minnesota winter, people have crawled into pipes, stood in front of excavators, engaged in tree-sits, climbed 40ft bi-pods, delayed construction with prayers, and locked to pianos to block bulldozers.
Nearly three weeks ago, I wrote to you about the launch of the #DefundLine3 campaign. Since then bank CEOs and executives have received more than 600,000 emails and nearly 1,500 phone calls, demanding that they stop funding Line 3.
When I launched this campaign, I told you that on March 31st, 18 banks have a $2.2 billion loan to Enbridge that was due for renewal. However, just a few days ago, we learned that the March 31st loan has been canceled. In its place, the same banks have given Enbridge an $800 million "sustainability" loan.
This is greenwashing at its worst. Giving Enbridge a sustainability loan is like giving a weapons manufacturer a "peace" loan; it's like giving a cigarette company a "health" loan. Even if Enbridge does plan on building a few solar panels with that money, you can't put a fire out and pour millions of barrels of tar sands on it at the same time.
When I heard about this new loan I felt sick. For months, I have watched Enbridge tear apart my people's land so it can build an oil pipeline that would poison our water and release the same amount of greenhouse gas as 50 new coal-fired power plants.
Activists in Minneapolis, Seattle and New York have already started staging protests at branches of the banks funding Line 3. Now, we're asking you to join us and stage a #DefundLine3 protest in your community.
Whether you are able to organize a Covid-safe demonstration with your friends, or if you're able to visit a local branch and deliver our #DefundLine3 petition directly to a bank manager, we're calling on you to take action with us.
Back in 2016, as Water Protectors were facing police brutality at Standing Rock, just like we are right now in Minnesota, #DefundDAPL protests erupted at bank branches around the country. Millions of dollars were removed from banks supporting the pipeline. Major cities committed to breaking ties with the guilty banks. Now, we need to see that same energy to hold the banks accountable for funding Line 3.
Will you join us in taking action in your community?
Chase, Bank of America, Citi, TD Bank and Wells Fargo are still loaning billions to Enbridge so that it can build Line 3. In just a few months, those banks have loans worth $5.8 billion that are up for renewal.
We're not going to let up until the banks have taken every last dollar out of Enbridge. We're not going to stop taking direct action on the frontlines until Enbridge has given up on Line 3 and left Anishinaabe treaty territory. And we're not going to let up until Wall Street starts funding real climate solutions, not corporate greenwashing "sustainability" loans to fossil fuel companies.
Please stand in solidarity with us and organize a #DefundLine3 action in your community.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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Tara Houska
Tara Houska Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe) is a tribal attorney, founder of Giniw Collective, and a former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders. She spent six months on the frontlines fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, and is currently engaged in the movement to defund fossil fuels and a years-long struggle against Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline. She is a co-founder of Not Your Mascots, a group committed to positive representation of Native peoples.
There are now more than 130 Water Protectors facing criminal charges for protecting the land from the Line 3 tar sands pipeline. At the same time, the climate criminals are free to keep bulldozing through my peoples' sacred lands.
It is physically painful to witness the land being ripped apart, to see our sacred manoomin being irrevocably harmed by a corporation that cares for nothing but profit. It is also deeply powerful to stand with those putting their bodies on the line to defend the land.
For months now, we've been taking steady, constant direct actions to delay the construction of Line 3. In the freezing cold of a Minnesota winter, people have crawled into pipes, stood in front of excavators, engaged in tree-sits, climbed 40ft bi-pods, delayed construction with prayers, and locked to pianos to block bulldozers.
Nearly three weeks ago, I wrote to you about the launch of the #DefundLine3 campaign. Since then bank CEOs and executives have received more than 600,000 emails and nearly 1,500 phone calls, demanding that they stop funding Line 3.
When I launched this campaign, I told you that on March 31st, 18 banks have a $2.2 billion loan to Enbridge that was due for renewal. However, just a few days ago, we learned that the March 31st loan has been canceled. In its place, the same banks have given Enbridge an $800 million "sustainability" loan.
This is greenwashing at its worst. Giving Enbridge a sustainability loan is like giving a weapons manufacturer a "peace" loan; it's like giving a cigarette company a "health" loan. Even if Enbridge does plan on building a few solar panels with that money, you can't put a fire out and pour millions of barrels of tar sands on it at the same time.
When I heard about this new loan I felt sick. For months, I have watched Enbridge tear apart my people's land so it can build an oil pipeline that would poison our water and release the same amount of greenhouse gas as 50 new coal-fired power plants.
Activists in Minneapolis, Seattle and New York have already started staging protests at branches of the banks funding Line 3. Now, we're asking you to join us and stage a #DefundLine3 protest in your community.
Whether you are able to organize a Covid-safe demonstration with your friends, or if you're able to visit a local branch and deliver our #DefundLine3 petition directly to a bank manager, we're calling on you to take action with us.
Back in 2016, as Water Protectors were facing police brutality at Standing Rock, just like we are right now in Minnesota, #DefundDAPL protests erupted at bank branches around the country. Millions of dollars were removed from banks supporting the pipeline. Major cities committed to breaking ties with the guilty banks. Now, we need to see that same energy to hold the banks accountable for funding Line 3.
Will you join us in taking action in your community?
Chase, Bank of America, Citi, TD Bank and Wells Fargo are still loaning billions to Enbridge so that it can build Line 3. In just a few months, those banks have loans worth $5.8 billion that are up for renewal.
We're not going to let up until the banks have taken every last dollar out of Enbridge. We're not going to stop taking direct action on the frontlines until Enbridge has given up on Line 3 and left Anishinaabe treaty territory. And we're not going to let up until Wall Street starts funding real climate solutions, not corporate greenwashing "sustainability" loans to fossil fuel companies.
Please stand in solidarity with us and organize a #DefundLine3 action in your community.
Tara Houska
Tara Houska Tara Houska (Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe) is a tribal attorney, founder of Giniw Collective, and a former advisor on Native American affairs to Bernie Sanders. She spent six months on the frontlines fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, and is currently engaged in the movement to defund fossil fuels and a years-long struggle against Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline. She is a co-founder of Not Your Mascots, a group committed to positive representation of Native peoples.
There are now more than 130 Water Protectors facing criminal charges for protecting the land from the Line 3 tar sands pipeline. At the same time, the climate criminals are free to keep bulldozing through my peoples' sacred lands.
It is physically painful to witness the land being ripped apart, to see our sacred manoomin being irrevocably harmed by a corporation that cares for nothing but profit. It is also deeply powerful to stand with those putting their bodies on the line to defend the land.
For months now, we've been taking steady, constant direct actions to delay the construction of Line 3. In the freezing cold of a Minnesota winter, people have crawled into pipes, stood in front of excavators, engaged in tree-sits, climbed 40ft bi-pods, delayed construction with prayers, and locked to pianos to block bulldozers.
Nearly three weeks ago, I wrote to you about the launch of the #DefundLine3 campaign. Since then bank CEOs and executives have received more than 600,000 emails and nearly 1,500 phone calls, demanding that they stop funding Line 3.
When I launched this campaign, I told you that on March 31st, 18 banks have a $2.2 billion loan to Enbridge that was due for renewal. However, just a few days ago, we learned that the March 31st loan has been canceled. In its place, the same banks have given Enbridge an $800 million "sustainability" loan.
This is greenwashing at its worst. Giving Enbridge a sustainability loan is like giving a weapons manufacturer a "peace" loan; it's like giving a cigarette company a "health" loan. Even if Enbridge does plan on building a few solar panels with that money, you can't put a fire out and pour millions of barrels of tar sands on it at the same time.
When I heard about this new loan I felt sick. For months, I have watched Enbridge tear apart my people's land so it can build an oil pipeline that would poison our water and release the same amount of greenhouse gas as 50 new coal-fired power plants.
Activists in Minneapolis, Seattle and New York have already started staging protests at branches of the banks funding Line 3. Now, we're asking you to join us and stage a #DefundLine3 protest in your community.
Whether you are able to organize a Covid-safe demonstration with your friends, or if you're able to visit a local branch and deliver our #DefundLine3 petition directly to a bank manager, we're calling on you to take action with us.
Back in 2016, as Water Protectors were facing police brutality at Standing Rock, just like we are right now in Minnesota, #DefundDAPL protests erupted at bank branches around the country. Millions of dollars were removed from banks supporting the pipeline. Major cities committed to breaking ties with the guilty banks. Now, we need to see that same energy to hold the banks accountable for funding Line 3.
Will you join us in taking action in your community?
Chase, Bank of America, Citi, TD Bank and Wells Fargo are still loaning billions to Enbridge so that it can build Line 3. In just a few months, those banks have loans worth $5.8 billion that are up for renewal.
We're not going to let up until the banks have taken every last dollar out of Enbridge. We're not going to stop taking direct action on the frontlines until Enbridge has given up on Line 3 and left Anishinaabe treaty territory. And we're not going to let up until Wall Street starts funding real climate solutions, not corporate greenwashing "sustainability" loans to fossil fuel companies.
Please stand in solidarity with us and organize a #DefundLine3 action in your community.
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