“Suspending one big oil expansion project through Native territory [Keystone XL] and approving another [Line 3 or Dakota Access Pipeline] is the opposite of climate leadership and respect for Indigenous sovereignty,” said Tara Houska, a citizen of Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe and prominent attorney, said in statement on January 14th, 2021.
All people of caring for future generations and for a sustainable way of living call upon President Joe Biden to invoke his Executive Order powers and immediately stop Line 3 as he has already done for Keystone XL. To not do so is hypocritical since he claims to understand the necessity of the climate emergency and to understand the environmental matters brought up by thousands of scientists worldwide and his position is directly contrary to the Paris Climate Agreement.
A couple of years ago, the United Nations warned we only had 11 years left to seriously make changes and emit far less greenhouse gases globally or the consequences will be catastrophic. That may even be optimistic considering tipping points may be closer than we think.
In 2020, we saw 12 million people forced out of their homes in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh due to severe monsoons, floods, and landslides caused by global warming, and in 2021 it has been Germany and China hit by devastating floods, and out-of-control wildfires in Siberia, Turkey, and Greece. the worst derecho in Iowa damaging 10 million acres of farmland, the hottest temperature on Earth recorded in Death Valley (130 deg F), the first ever fire tornados in California, year six of intense drought and crop failure in Central America, and 15 million people with food and water shortages in Africa. How long are we going to let conditions get worse and worse and the causes of global warming go unchecked?
If nothing is done about this, we are on track to exceed over 7 degrees C warming, which would make much of life on this Earth impossible according to an overwhelming majority of climate scientists world-wide.
Many scientists also point out that we really have no carbon budget left and must stop all new fossil fuel projects at once and that we must ramp down fossil fuel usage immediately. Many even say that we need to have carbon capture solutions as well, but so far these solutions are in their infancy and not cost-effective at all. One very good carbon capture method is planting more trees, and this also must be part of the solution, and not cutting down ancient forests and rain forests.
So it is critical that we begin the process of widespread change to our ways of lives, systemic changes to our economy, and to begin to take this seriously and leave fossil fuel reserves in the ground, including the reserves in Alberta, Canada, of which Line 3 is a primary outlet for. The government can rearrange the way it does things and redistribute food and necessities directly irregardless of money, and then get people reorganized working on things that benefit people and the planet, rather than everyone being slave to a dysfunctional system based on money that is wrecking the planet.
Line 3 also feeds Line 5 in Michigan and Line 61 in Illinois.
Sign the petition to shut down Line 5 from “oil and water don't mix” too if you haven't already.
James Hansen, former US government employee, has already warned us in 2013 that continued extraction of the Alberta Tar Sands will mean Game Over for the Planet In order for the US not to enable Canada to continue extracting from the Alberta Tar Sands, we need to stop all pipelines from that area which means Keystone XL, Line 3, and the Trans Mountain Pipeline.
Line 3 needs to be phased out and the replacement project cancelled and Canada must do its diligence and cancel the Trans Mountain Pipeline which is completely a Canadian pipeline.
Investors must also stop investing in oil and gas.
Almost every 401K and mutual and retirement fund invests in oil and gas and this is a problem because it means almost everyone is guilty for enabling Line 3 and other ill-conceived projects.
Banks like Chase Bank and Wells Fargo are also complicit in this and they must in good conscience stop their support for Earth-destroying projects like this.
Many Water Protectors are trying to protect the water in Minnesota NOW AS WE SPEAK at numerous camps that are beleagured by police and security forces. They urgently need help from people of conscience. To see how you can help, here is one link of ways to plug into the movement to stop line 3.
Enbridge's worksites and man camps have quickly become hotspots for COVID-19 in Aitkin County, and violence against Indigenous Women is up 22%.
The governor of Minnesota,governor Walz, promised that there wouldn't be man camps for Line 3, but this was clearly a bald lie because our sources say they do certainly do exist right now.
Enbridge is also currently pulling immense amounts of water out of the area during a time of drought, which is also clearly wrong and immoral.
“We saw Minnesota's police officers protecting a Canadian tar sands pipeline being built by mostly out-of-state workers, for sale on foreign market. We need good paying jobs up north that don't require us to destroy our environment. Where is the investment in the north land? Where is the upholding of treaty rights? Where is the Walz administration on this pandemic pipeline?” said Tara Houska of the Giniw Collective.
“We witnessed pipes being put into the ground which have been sitting out for years. It's wrong. Those pipes will leak. Enbridge is a climate criminal. Water Protectors are the home team. Don't arrest us.” said Winona LaDuke of Honor the Earth.
“ We have been told by Governor Walz to follow the process, we have! However, that process also includes the Court of APPEALS. I went to uplift the voices of all our relatives, who include the four legged, flyers, swimmers, crawlers, and the plant nation. We stood in solidarity with our non-native allies who understand that they too, have a treaty obligation. The treaties have been ignored so long that people think it's okay to continue ignoring them, but it's not okay. Together, we will RISE and GROW to ensure treaties are upheld; so we are able to protect the waters and all that is sacred for the next seven generations. We call upon President Joe Biden to stop this horrific Line 3 relocation plan that puts our water rich inherent homelands at risk to carcinogenic bitumen, which is also known as tar sands oil that sinks in water” said Dawn Goodwin, representative for Indigenous Environmental Network.
One group you can contact is Minnesota 350 if you want more information: https://mn350.org
Another group to contact: https://www.stopline3.org
Most recently, Chase, Citibank, and Bank of America gave $1.5 billion in “sustainability” loans to Enbridge Inc., a serial oil spiller and polluter, to buy solar panels and electric vehicles for their corporate offices and to get better interest rates on existing loans.
Chase Bank will tell you that sustainability bonds are a part of their commitment to the planet, but they are trying to distract from the “elephant in the room” - their sustainability bonds fund climate destruction and violence against indigenous people.
The sustainability bonds are a form of “greenwashing”, where corporations pretend like they are helping the environment but in fact are doing the opposite.
The Line 3 pipeline violates treaty rights of the Anishinaabe and Dakota people. It not only brings pollution and habitat destruction, but also sexual violence and police brutality to the Indigenous peoples who live on the construction route.
As you read this, water protectors are being harassed, brutalized, and targetted for standing up for the planet and the autonomy of the Indigenous peoples.
Call Chase CEO Board Member and Chicagoan James Crown. Leave a message at 312-899-4943 and tell James that Chase Bank giving sustainability bonds for solar panels to Enbridge for their office buildings and reducing interest rates for “being green” while at the same time financing the construction of their Line 3 pipeline is greenwashing.
Chase Bank has funded 1.8 billion dollars of Enbridge's Line 3 oil pipeline.
It is well past time to evict Enbridge from our communities and stop this Canadian multi-national corporation from poisoning the waters and lands any further! We can do this by holding our financial institutions like Chase accountable for greenwashing and funding Enbridge's destruction.
In Minnesota, LIne 3 crosses the Leech Lake and Fond du Lac Reservations and the 1855, 1854, and 1842 treaty areas. Line 3 violates the treaty rights of the Anishinaabe people.
As of August 2021, more than 700 people have been arrested or cited on the front lines of the movement to stop Line 3 according to a recent statement from the Pipeline Legal Action Network.
The Treaty People Walk for Water began a 19 day walk from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the capital building of Minnesota where protestors will gather to try and stop Line 3 in Treaties not Tar Sands.
The wild rice on the White Earth Reservation filed suit against the state of Minnesota in a “rights of nature” case.
Recent reports indicate the police have been using chokeholds, rubber bullets, and tear gas against civilians in the brutal repression of resistance to the Earth-killing Line 3.
If Line 3 replacement project is completed, it will cross more than 200 bodies of water, which are all surrounded by delicate wetland ecosystems, and tunnels under 22 rivers. Line 3 also threatens Manoomin, also known as wild rice, that is an important food source of the Anishinaabe people and protected by the 1855, 1854, and 1842 treaties.
Enbridge is responsible for the March 3rd, 1991 oil sill in Grand Rapids, MN. The largest inland oil spill in United States history, spilling 1.7 million gallons.
Enbridge is also responsible for the 2010 spill in the Kalamazoo River, a Lake Michigan tributary. Enbridge failed to stop the flow of oil through the ruptured Kalamazoo River pipe for over 17 hours.
There have been 1,068 Enbridge spills across the entire Enbridge pipeline system, that have dumped 7.4 million gallons of oil into the environment between 1999 and 2013, an average of 71 spills and 500,000 gallons per year. That's more than one oil spill every week for the last 15 years.
This page last updated on 10/14/2021