Enbridge’s law enforcement payouts near $3 million, Bears Ears preserved (for now), and more

In this blog:

• Enbridge reimbursements for Line 3 police protection near $3 million
• Video, new fact sheets now available on Line 3’s artesian aquifer breach and frac-outs
• Minnetonka Moccasin apologizes for cultural appropriation, hires Reconciliation Director
• Biden protects Bears Ears, National Arctic Wildlife Refuge, but for how long?
• Let’s honor Galileo with a statue on the Capitol Mall!

Enbridge reimbursements for Line 3 law enforcement protection nears $3 million

Enbridge has reimbursed local sheriffs offices and police and fire departments more than $2.9 million for their responses to Line 3 resistance, according to the latest information from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission.

Enbridge made additional payments of nearly $160,000 to groups serving victims of sex trafficking and abuse. Including those brings Enbridge payments over $3 million.

Click here for the most recent PUC spread sheet of reimbursements.

Video, fact sheets available on Line 3 aquifer breach, frac-outs

Partial screen grab from video on Line 3’s aquifer breach. Video: Lucas Mulliken (@NOWLIVEFROM)

The Minnesota Environmental Partnership (MEP) has created a web page with resources to help you understand Line 3’s environmental damage, specifically on the aquifer breach and the frac-outs.

MEP developed:

• A one-page Frac-outs Fact Sheet that points out that, most of the time, Enbridge’s plans for drilling tunnels for Line 3 to pass under rivers and wetlands failed to protect the environment. (The MPCA still is investigating these violations.)
• A one-page Aquifer Breach Fact Sheet that gives the basic information on how Enbridge violated its own construction plans, dug deeper than allowed, and broke through the cap on an artisean aquifer. (Then it hid the information from state regulators.) The problem has yet to be solved.
• A one page summary on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR’s) authority to act to protect the environment from Line 3’s damages

Depending on the time you have, you can watch this one-minute video on the aquifer breach or this hour-long webinar.

Minnesota Moccasin apologizes to Indigenous communities for cultural appropriation

On Indigenous Peoples Day, Minnetonka Moccasin acknowledged that it had benefited from the appropriation of Native American culture (moccasins) and issued an apology, WCCO-TV reported.

It’s also committed to support Native American communities, and announced it had hired Adrienne Benjamin, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, as the company’s first reconciliation advisor.

Biden protects Bears Ears, Arctic Refuge, but how long will it last?

With the growing political divide, we can expect a lot of ping-ponging of important environmental laws.

Biden has reversed some bad Trump-era decisions, restoring full protections to Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, the Washington Post reported.

His administration also suspended oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, according to the U.S. Dept. of the Interior.

They feel like precarious wins. A change in administration could bring another 180-degree turn in policies.

Let’s honor Galileo on the Capitol Mall!

Galileo Galilei. Image: Wellcome Images.

There’s an empty pedestal on Minnesota’s Capitol Mall.

American Indian Movement member Mike Forcia last year pulled down the Columbus statue that had occupied that space.

This spring, Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-Alexandria) introduced legislation “to restore and repatriate” the Columbus statue to the Capitol grounds, according to a media release.

Jim Bear Jacobs has a better idea. Why not erect a statue to honor Galileo?

Think about it. Just like Columbus, Galileo was Italian. (And just like Columbus, Galileo never set foot on what would become the United States.)

Unlike Columbus, Galileo is not symbolic of Native American genocide. His presence wouldn’t be traumatic to Native American residents.

Unlike Columbus, Galileo actually discovered something. (The fact that millions of people already were living in the “New World” undermines any claims that Columbus discovered this place.)

Galileo made significant improvements to the telescope, discovering that the moon had mountains, Jupiter had moons, and the Milky Way was full of stars.

Christopher Columbus’ statue on the Capitol Mall was toppled last year.

Galileo got in hot water with the Church authorities, the political power of his day, when he argued that the sun, not the Earth, was the center of our planetary system.

As the Indigo Girls sing, “Galileo’s head was on the block. The crime was lookin’ up the truth.”

A statue of Galileo would honor an Italian, an inventor, a discoverer, a truth teller, and an independent thinker, great values to have on the Capitol Mall.