The Enbridge Line 3 Public Safety Escrow Account reimbursed Minnesota law enforcement agencies $12,500 for handcuffs and zip ties to detain Water Protectors resisting Line 3.
It paid $120,000 for a public safety liaison who worked for a year and a half to coordinate among Enbridge, local officials, and the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
It funded the equivalent of more than 10 percent of the Cass County Sheriff’s Office’s budget in 2021.
These are among the new details in the remarkable story Documents show how a pipeline company paid Minnesota millions to police protests, published jointly by Grist and the Center for Media and Democracy.
(Lead author Alleen Brown did ground-breaking reporting on Line 3 while at The Intercept.)
In 2018, the PUC approved a controversial (and last-minute) provision that allowed Enbridge to fund the escrow account. An independent third-party manager reviewed reimbursement invoices from law enforcement agencies, and recommended either approving or denying them. The PUC had the final say.
Grist and the Center for Media and Democracy filed data requests to get every single invoice. The story provides “the most complete picture yet of the ways the pipeline company paid for the arrests of its opponents — and much more,” it said.
“Dozens of invoices mentioned ‘patrols,’ where law enforcement would drive up and down the pipeline route or surveil places occupied by pipeline opponents,” the story said.
Now, well over a year since Line 3 construction finished, some Line 3-related cases are still pending. In one Aitkin County case, defendants are arguing the escrow account biased law enforcement and violated their rights to equal protection under the law.
The escrow account ultimately paid $8.4 million for law enforcement and public safety agencies.
Agencies that received reimbursements are in denial about the conflict-of-interest problems the escrow account raises. They don’t seem concerned or even acknowledge the appearance of bias.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) received $2.1 million in escrow account reimbursements, making it the single largest recipient. (The DNR also was supposed to be monitoring Line 3 construction for environmental damage.)
In a statement to Grist, the DNR said that “receiving reimbursement from Enbridge does not constitute a conflict of interest: “’At no time were state law enforcement personnel under the control or direction of Enbridge, and at no time did the opportunity for reimbursement for our public safety work in any way influence our regulatory decisions.’”
The Minnesota State Patrol received $1.5 million. Howie Padilla, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, which oversees the State Patrol, used the exact answer as the DNR.
No one said the money went directly from Enbridge to law enforcement agencies. The DNR and State Patrol responses evade the question. Everyone knew where the money was coming from. Further, it was just part of much larger coordinated and cooperative effort between Enbridge and the state’s law enforcement infrastructure that broke the scales of justice.
Apparently the arrangement doesn’t violate a law. And state agencies and law enforcement apparently feel some plausible deniability since the money didn’t come directly from Enbridge.
All the same, it’s not right.
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