Like the old Line 3 pipeline, Minnesota’s regulatory system is corroded and compromised

Enbridge’s 2010 Kalamazoo spill cost more than $1 billion to clean up. Minnesota regulators feared this could happen here. (Photo: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

The current Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline is more that 50 year’s old. It’s badly corroded and only runs at only 50 percent capacity to reduce spill risks.

Monitoring tools inside the pipeline identify potential problems. When found, workers dig down to the pipeline, inspect it, and make repairs. This is called an “integrity dig.” Enbridge estimated the current Line 3 would need 4,000 integrity digs over 15 years for its safe operation. That’s a lot of digging.

There’s a lot more integrity problems than just one old pipeline. Our entire regulatory system has integrity problems, including its failure to stop the dangerous and unnecessary Line 3 pipeline.

Collectively, we need to dig into this corroded system, understand how it got so compromised, and fix it.

Water protectors seek restraining order against county sheriff for harassment, blocking property access

Indigenous water protectors are seeking an emergency Temporary Restraining Order against the Hubbard County Sheriff. It’s in response to a months-long campaign by the Sheriff’s Office of unlawful harassment, arrests, and efforts to block property access, they say.

EarthRights International and Center for Protest Law and Litigation are representing the water protectors.

This law enforcement response didn’t come out of nowhere, it’s been in the works for years. Enbridge and law enforcement have worked hand-in-hand to plan their response to Line 3 resistance. Enbridge is indirectly funding law enforcement’s Line 3 responses, buying law enforcement good will.

From the Line 3 front lines: Arrests at multiple sites, police dogs, an eviction order and its repeal, police harassment, and cultural renewal as pipeline construction escalates

Photo: Indigenous Environmental Network

Indigenous nations and people are flexing their treaty muscles to Stop Line 3.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety and the Minnesota Department of Transportation threatened arrests and evictions earlier today at the Red Lake Treaty Camp in Pennington County. The camp is adjacent to lands where Enbridge plans to tunnel Line 3 under the Red Lake River.

The agencies later rescinded their trespass order, indicating that Water Protectors in the area are not required to leave.

That said, law enforcement arrested one person at the Treaty Camp Tuesday. They also brought attack dogs, according to a media release, reminiscent of Standing Rock.

Unlike Standing Rock, however, which focused on the Dakota Access Pipeline’s Missouri River crossing, Line 3 runs 337 miles border-to-border through northern Minnesota, crossing more than 200 bodies. Resistance is spread out. Water Protectors use a variety of tactics. Some resist with peaceful presence, exercising their treaty-protected rights to hold ceremony on Line 3 easements. Others lock down to equipment.

In other news today, Water Protectors locked down to Enbridge’s Horizontal Directional Drill (HDD) equipment being used to bore a Line 3 tunnel under the Straight River in Hubbard County, according to the Giniw Collective.

On Monday, three Water Protectors connected to a ceremony were arrested in Aitkin County on an Enbridge easement for its second Mississippi River crossing.

Details below.

Why don’t I trust Enbridge? Let me count the ways

Big month ahead, including major Line 3 court ruling

File: Gichi-gami Gathering to Stop Line 3 in Duluth.

Tribal nations and environmental and Indigenous-led groups have worked for years to stop Enbridge’s proposed Line 3 tars sands pipeline through northern Minnesota. Line 3 is bad for the environment, bad for climate, violates treaty rights and simply isn’t needed.

Enbridge is a multi-national, bottom-line company seeking to minimize its costs and maximize its profits. It prioritizes its profits over the environment, climate, and treaty rights.

Minnesota regulators shouldn’t have put their trust in Enbridge, let alone approved Line 3 permits. There are plenty of examples to show how Enbridge has lacked transparency and not been a reliable partner, both here and in other states.

Work on Line 3 has slowed in the past few months due to springtime construction restrictions. It’s now picking back up.

Water protectors and their allies are hosting the Treaty People Gathering up north from Saturday-Tuesday, with large-scale, non-violent civil disobedience being organized.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals will rule no later than June 21 on the first of three major legal challenges to Line 3 in state and federal courts. This first suit seeks to overturn Line 3’s Certificate of Need, Route Permit, and Environmental Impact Statement.

With a busy and important month ahead, I’m take this opportunity to review the red flags I’ve seen surrounding Enbridge and its Line 3 proposal.

Walz has given more time to sheriffs concerned about Line 3 than water protectors, and other pipeline updates

In this blog:

• Walz listens more to law enforcement’s Line 3 concerns than the Stop Line 3 Coalition
• Enbridge’s Public Safety Escrow Account seems to have co-opted law enforcement to serve as Enbridge’s private security
• MN county sheriffs lobbied for friendly Line 3 Public Safety Escrow Account manager
• U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm says there are better uses for pipelines than carrying tar sands oil
• Pipeline private security firm gets lax oversight compared to water protector scrutiny
• Internationally, mining projects use private security for blackmail, spying, threats against the opposition
• New Byhalia pipeline route would cut through predominantly African American neighborhoods in Memphis

U.S. Justice Dept. to investigate Minneapolis police practices, culture

The U.S. Justice Department today announced a sweeping probe of the Minneapolis Police Department, investigating its practices, culture, and use of force to see if there is a pattern of unconstitutional or unlawful policing.

Sounds impressive, but we’ve heard this reform story before, nationally and locally. Problems persist.

Guilty, yes, but it’s only the start

A crowd gathered at George Floyd Square after the verdict.

Hennepin County jurors today found former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of second-degree murder in the death of George Floyd, along with two lesser counts.

It was the first time in state history that a white police officer was held accountable for killing a Black man, according the Minnesota ACLU.

In their closing arguments, prosecutors stressed to the jury that Chauvin’s trial was a pro-police prosecution, not an anti-police prosecution. They knew that some jurors had a favorable opinion of police and didn’t want to lose any a vote by suggesting this was an indictment of the police in general.

Yet this moment calls for an overhaul of our system of public safety. The push will come from many organizations and from across the city, including those people currently occupying George Floyd Square.

Along with police violence, white culture should be on trial, too

White bodies have demanded obedience, submission, and respect from black bodies since this nation was founded, even before.

Things have improved, slowly, but white supremacy is still alive, even thriving. In policing, it can show up as intimidation, excessive force, and death for Black bodies.

It is easy for those of us who are white (including this author) to “other” the police, as if we haven’t benefited from their policing and other forms oppression that have led to gross racial inequalities in our communities. We are part of that same social conditioning into white supremacy.

This is more than an accident

Screen capture from a video of the vigil for Daunte Wright.

Hundreds of people attended a vigil in Brooklyn Center Monday night near the site where a police officer shot and killed Daunte Wright. (Crowd video here.) It ended by 7 p.m., the start of a curfew imposed by Gov. Tim Walz.

Many residents ignored the curfew and clashed with police during the evening.

In a media conference today, Brooklyn Center officials spoke to the “tragic” events and the community’s grief, but failed to speak to the community’s justifiable anger.

Brooklyn Park Police Chief Tim Gannon called the shooting “an accident.” The state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension would do the investigation, he said.

Regardless of who’s doing the investigating, Gannon needs to acknowledge this is more than an accident. The officer’s actions were, at a minimum, reckless and negligent.

Vigil tonight for unarmed black man shot and killed by Brooklyn Center police during traffic stop

The family of Daunte Wright, the 20-year-old unarmed black man who was shot and killed by police in Brooklyn Center last night, has called for a peaceful celebration of life tonight at 6:00 p.m. at 63^rd Avenue North and Kathrene Drive, the site of the shooting.  LED candles have been requested. (Previous version said 7 p.m. but because of potential curfew it was moved up an hour.)

At a news conference today, Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said the officer “apparently meant to fire a Taser but instead made an ‘accidental discharge’ from her gun,” the Washington Post reported.