If you are a reader of this blog, mostly likely you are strongly opposed to the proposed expansion and reroute of a tar sands crude oil pipeline through northern Minnesota (see map at right).
Enbridge has an old and failing Line 3 (the black line on the map). Enbridge proposes to abandon that line in the ground and install a new, larger pipeline along a new route (the red line on the map.) That new route crosses the Mississippi headwaters and endangers clean lakes, rivers and wild rice beds, and all for nothing. Minnesota’s fossil fuel demand is actually declining.
If you are like a lot of people, you want to have your voice heard but don’t have to time to wade through the hundreds of pages in the recently released draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Even the most ardent opponents struggle to get through it.
But the good news is, they did. As a result, there are lots of easy-to-read fact sheets coming out to help you understand the core issues. Here are a few helpful resources:
- Honor the Earth’s Stop Line 3 website
- Honor the Earth Line 3 highlights
- Honor the Earth’s EIS Guide
- MN350 Line 3 Talking Points
- Sierra Club Line 3 Fact Sheet
- Sierra Club Action Alert
We have created a separate Enbridge Line 3 tab on our blog to organize this kind of information about Line 3 and make it easy to find. If you think we are missing content, please send us a comment.
Keep reading to get a taste of some of the fact sheets’ analysis.
Honor the Earth’s Fact Sheet highlights Line 3’s tribal impacts, spill risks, impact on climate change and more. It says Enbridge’s preferred route endangers 17 wild rice lakes, more than any of the alternative routes. Among the other things it points out about in the DEIS:
Chapter 9, “Tribal Resources,” states that ANY of the possible routes for Line 3 “would have a long-term detrimental effect on tribal members and tribal resources” that cannot be accurately categorized, quantified, or compared (9.6). It also acknowledges that “traditional resources are essential to the maintenance and realization of tribal lifeways, and their destruction or damage can have profound cultural consequences” (9.4.3)
MN350’s talking points note:
The DEIS found that the “social cost of carbon”– an estimate of the financial burden on society due to increased climate change impacts — of building the pipeline could be as high as $287 billion over a 30-year timespan (Chapter 5, page 443). This number is shockingly high, but a 30-year timeline is actually the shortest estimated lifespan of the pipe according to the DEIS,
The Sierra Club’s Fact Sheet says:
Enbridge has one of the worst safety records of major pipeline companies and was called out as incompetent by the National Transportation Safety Board for its role in the massive 800,000 gallon spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River in 2010. Enbridge’s pipelines had more than 800 spills in the U.S. and Canada between 1999 and 2010, leaking 6.8 million gallons of oil.
For more info and insights, click and read the fact sheets. The state will take public comments through July 10. Based on public comments, it will amend the EIS and release a final version.
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!
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