Sign up for our newsletter.

Quality journalism. Progressive values. Direct to your inbox.

Follow us:

THIS ISN’T A PAYWALL

Common Dreams will never be locked behind a paywall because we believe our journalism should remain freely available to everyone ― not just those who can afford to pay. By becoming a sustaining monthly donor today, you can help make sure our work remains free for those who aren't able to chip in.

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

Corporate gatekeepers and big tech monopolists are making it more difficult than ever for independent media to survive. Please chip in today.

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

Line 3 Jane Fonda

Actress and Climate activist Jane Fonda (R) and Indigenous community members gather before praying for water during a rally and march in Solvay, Minnesota on June 7, 2021. Line 3 is an oil sands pipeline which runs from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin in the United States. (Photo: KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden Has the Power to End This Outrage and Stop Enbridge Line 3

So far, he has chosen not to.

Eric Hansen

Biden needs to stop construction of the Enbridge Line 3 tar sands crude oil pipeline that threatens the headwaters of the Mississippi as well as Lake Superior and other valued waters in Minnesota and Wisconsin, Ojibwe treaty rights, and our planet’s health.

Rosy images of electric buses and other infrastructure projects Biden is advocating for were part of his presentation in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Those images ignore the widespread destructive impacts of the oil pipeline project he is enabling upstream.
 
Question: Will transitioning to electric buses offset endorsing a permit for a tar sands pipeline that is the carbon equivalent of building fifty new coal fired power plants?
 
That pipeline construction is tearing apart communities, pristine streams and forests, wild rice waters sacred to the Ojibwe, and civic democracy itself. 
 
Enbridge, a Canadian oil pipeline company with an extensive record of massive oil spills and bullying behavior towards landowners, is now financing militarization of police forces in northern Minnesota.
 
Biden has the power to stop this outrage today, to withdraw the pipeline’s permit. So far, he has chosen not to. Worse, the federal Justice Department is signing off on it, filing a brief last week endorsing a Trump era finding that Enbridge has met all the requirements for a permit.
 
Why does Enbridge want to increase their pipeline capacity through Minnesota and Wisconsin?
 
Check the map.
 
Enbridge, and other promoters of the Alberta tar sands, need to get their product to saltwater to ship it to the world market.
 
Their shortest route would be through British Columbia. Ferocious resistance by ranchers and indigenous nations there pushed Enbridge to attempt a much longer route through the Upper Midwest and on to the Gulf of Mexico.
 
Nebraska ranchers and tribes figured out the tar sands pipeline scam quickly. It is all risk and no reward for locals. Nebraskans fought the Keystone XL pipeline for a decade and Biden wisely canceled the project’s permit on his first day in office.
 
Now, Biden must stop Enbridge’s Line 3. Minnesotans filed 72,000 public comments on the Line 3 project. 68,000 opposed it.
 
Enbridge is trying to avoid that wave of public opposition, and pending lawsuits, by rushing to complete the Line 3 project.
 
Over a hundred water protectors have been arrested in recent weeks during protests against the pipeline construction.
 
Winona LaDuke, executive director of the indigenous organization Honor the Earth, put it well:
"This is a racist pipeline project forced down the throats of our people, an ecological time bomb and a giveaway to a Canadian multinational oil interest."
Now is the time to speak out for treaty rights and common sense, clean water and the clean government procedures that protect it, a livable future for our planet and an end to Enbridge’s destructive Line 3 construction. See StopLine3 for ways you can help.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Eric Hansen

Wisconsin author Eric Hansen is a nationally recognized conservation essayist. ehansen@wi.rr.com

Comments

We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

Latest News

See all

Wall Street-Funded Democrat PAC to Spend $1 Million in Bid to Unseat Tlaib: Report

"Imagine spending $1 million to oust Rashida Tlaib instead of organizing in Detroit to make sure Michigan goes blue," quipped one progressive group.

Brett Wilkins ·

Ocean Rebellion staged a theatrical action with a Boris Johnson head and an "Oil head" burning a boat on Marazion beach on June 5, 2021 in Cornwall, United Kingdom. (Photo: Gav Goulder/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Parents Demand Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty 'For the Sake of the Children'

"We cannot remain silent as the fossil fuel industry and world leaders rob our children of a livable future," parents from 32 nations wrote in an open letter.

Brett Wilkins ·

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley

'We Can Do Better' Than Biden's Paltry Student Debt Relief Plan, Says AOC

The president's approach, said the New York Democrat, is "just enough to anger the people against it *and* the people who need forgiveness the most."

Julia Conley ·

Gabriella Uriegas, a soccer teammate of Tess Mata who died in the massacre at an elementary school in Texas, cries while holding her mother Geneva Uriegas as they visit a makeshift memorial outside the Uvalde County Courthouse on May 26, 2022.

Right-Wing Supreme Court Poised to Make US Gun Carnage Even Worse

The U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing majority could soon "obliterate even the mildest of gun regulations in service of its gun lobby masters."

Kenny Stancil ·

Houston NRA protest

'Enough Is Enough!': Thousands Protest Outside NRA Convention in Texas

"I'm just tired of the NRA subordinating children's rights for gun rights," said one gun lobby opponent just three days after the school massacre in Uvalde.

Brett Wilkins ·

Most Popular

 
  1. 'Ted Cruz, F-ck You!': Anger Erupts at Gun-Loving GOP After Mass Slaughter in Texas
  2. 'We Refuse to Go On Like This': US Students Walk Out to Demand Gun Control
  3. 'Perverse' Supreme Court Ruling 'Effectively Ensures That Innocent People Will Remain Imprisoned'
  4. Florida Student's Graduation Speech About Curly Hair Highlights Cruelty of 'Don't Say Gay' Law
  5. 'Counting Dollars While They Were Counting Bodies': Abbott Attended Fundraiser Hours After Massacre
  6. 'You'll Learn Why': GOP Lawmaker Threatens Biden If Democrats Try to Take Away Guns
  7. Texas Democrat Demands Federal Probe of Police Response to Uvalde Shooting
  8. 'This Is on You!' Beto Interrupts Abbott Press Conference on Texas Massacre
  9. 'Inaction Is Bought': Here Are the Receipts on NRA's Purchase of GOP
  10. Australian Progressives Hail 'Greenslide' Amid Big Left Wins and Morrison's Ouster
Common Dreams Logo

To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.