Then Ava Mart stood up to talk. “I want to talk about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women” she said, her voice strong, despite her nervousness. This pipeline, like the Bakken Oil fields and many extractive industries, is a flashpoint for Native women. After all, Ft. McMurray the source of the tar sands, the phone book features 10-pages of escorts, including low-cost lovers promising cut-rate service within 20-minutes. Up north, there are almost 10,000 men living in man camps.
Now to be clear, Enbridge as a part of their permit had to submit a Human Trafficking Prevention Plan. It’s a good four pages of “educate equip. .. and encourage ... those associated with pipeline construction... to prevent and report any Project related human trafficking…” They will have a toll free number to call. As well, they will establish a “Public Safety Escrow Trust Account” which will be part of the police and militarization expenses associated with Enbridge’s activities. That’s most likely to be spent not on protecting Native women, but on arresting them; at least that’s the experience we had at Standing Rock- over 800 arrests. Ava was on point.
The Duluth hearing was about a revised environmental impact statement prepared essentially by Enbridge for the Public Utilities Commission. An administrative law judge listened to responses, the pro- pipeline groups and Enbridge had rented out most of the Duluth Radisson, and Duluth police attempted to keep the eagle staff from the event. No press conferences were allowed in the hotel, so Babbitt Sandman, of the Duluth Indian Commission, and others were forced to talk about the EIS outside in the cold. It was as if it was an Enbridge event. The PUC updated EIS was court ordered, requiring a review of the impact of an oil spill on Lake Superior. With most of Enbridge’s data on an upstream creek, sequestered behind a dam, the PUC, not surprisingly found no need for concern.
According to its own documents, Enbridge openly admits it can’t build Line 3 and meet all of Minnesota’s water quality standards, “given northern Minnesota’s topography and environment (e.g., avoiding wetlands).” Testimony by a number of community members and scientists noted the complete inadequacy of Enbridge’s newly prepared spill plan, from the limited study of the Little Otter Creek Watershed, the lack of acknowledgement of climate change related disasters, and no analysis actually of the impact of an oil spill on Lake Superior.
Instead, the supplementary EIS points out, in Chapter l0, page l, “the analysis of this chapter cannot predict the impact of a spill”. The pressure by Enbridge is for the PUC to adopt this report as adequate. They are making a big political push for this, a write in campaign and intense pressure. The fact is that the PUC will deem this report adequate, because the PUC has been approving inadequate and wrong permits for the entire scope of the regulatory process on Line 3. Time for more lawsuits. And, the White Earth, Red Lake and Mille Lacs bands continue to stand for the water.
In the meantime, despite negotiations with Enbridge on fifty years of past trespassing, the Red Lake Tribal Council reaffirmed opposition to Line 3, issuing a new statement in December underscoring that Red Lake wants to be paid for the last pipeline projects, and does not want a new project. And, in late December, the Minnesota Court of Appeals, told the Public Utilities Commission that they had overstepped their authority, this time in approving a power plant, (Nemadji Trails Energy Center), which would power Enbridge’s pipelines. These lines, after all take about 2 nuclear power plants worth of juice to send the oil across the north country. On December 23, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that Minnesota indeed had to do an EIS on this proposed power plant, because it would impact Minnesota ecology. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has three times moved to approve big corporate projects, without an Environmental Impact Statement. Three times the court has ruled against them.
While Enbridge does a media press, including radio, tv and newsprint, espousing the message that there have been enough hearings on this pipeline, and it’s time to move ahead, they neglect the basic data. In the 60 plus hearings on the proposed Enbridge Line 3, as well as the regulatory testimony, over 68,000 people came out to testify against the pipeline, only 3000 or so for the pipeline. Muscles, green shirts and hating aside, Minnesota doesn’t want the Enbridge Line 3.
To be clear, Enbridge created Minnesotans for Line 3, to pretend there was a citizens movement that was pro pipeline. They filled, yet another meeting room with their people, and filled the hall with repetitive testimony that the pipeline would provide jobs for them. A June 6 report released by DeSmog, an investigative journalist project, found that “Minnesotans for Line presents itself as a grassroots organization consisting of “thousands of members.” But, behind the scenes, Enbridge CEO Al Monaco, along with Cynthia Hansen and John Whelen, both senior executives at Enbridge in Calgary comprised the board members, according to filings at the FCC for the advertising. The only board member of Minnesotans for Line 3 from Minnesota was Bob Schoenberger, formerly of United Pipeline Company, may he rest in peace. The new advisory board consists of businesses associated with Enbridge, not surprisingly, Matt Gordon , Abby Louks, Mel Olson and others.
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