Action alert from Moveon.org petitions –
Indigenous leaders and allies organized for more than a decade to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and finally won after the project was cancelled earlier this month. Now, we have a chance to come together again to stop another dangerous project: Enbridge’s toxic Line 3 tar sands pipeline, which is a threat to treaty rights, clean water, and the climate.
For seven years the Anishinabe (Ojibwe) people of Northern Minnesota and our allies—have been organizing to stop the construction of the massive Line 3 toxic tar sands pipeline, which is a terrible threat to our treaty rights, clean water, and the climate.
President Biden can cancel the permits for Line 3 with the stroke of a pen, just as he did for the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day in office. It just needs to become a priority for him.
The Enbridge corporation’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline project would expand the production of one of the world’s dirtiest fuels—tar sands crude oil—through 200 bodies of water in our treaty territory.2 These are lands where we have the right to hunt, fish, and gather the sacred manoomin (wild rice). In the face of climate catastrophe, the pipeline would carry the carbon impact of 50 new coal plants.3
Over the past seven years, youth, Indigenous leaders, community groups, scientists, and tribal governments have fought this project. The state of Minnesota’s own Commerce Department has joined tribal governments and others in a pending lawsuit saying this project is not needed.
But big money talks loudly, and the Trump administration and state regulators let the project go through, without a proper Environmental Impact Statement taking into account treaty rights or climate change. More than 300 groups wrote to President Biden asking him to use his power to revoke the Army Corps of Engineers permit for this project.4 But we need you to add your voice.
Just this month, the company that has spent more than a decade trying to build the Keystone XL pipeline officially cancelled the project.5 That didn’t just happen; it was the result of tireless organizing that built political power stronger than corporate lobbyists. Together, we can build on that momentum and make Line 3 the next pipeline to be cancelled.
There is no time to lose. Over the next few weeks, the Enbridge corporation is preparing to drill under dozens of Minnesota’s rivers and lakes, including the Mississippi headwaters.
Hundreds of us have faced arrest, threats, and harassment for rising up against the Line 3 pipeline and for our rights and everyone’s future.
Seeing people from all over—every race, age, and religion, Native and non-Native—put their bodies on the line this month told me we can win.
Please join us by adding your name to my petition, and then pass it along to your friends.
Miigwech (thank you),
–Gina Peltier, Water Protector & Organizer, Honor The Earth
Sources:
1. “Hundreds Arrested at Line 3 ‘Treaty People Gathering.’ Water Protectors Vow To Continue Until the Pipeline is Canceled,” DeSmog, June 8, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153871?t=12&akid=300443%2E4139708%2EgZjyeP
2. “As Line 3 construction rolls on, river crossings draw pipeline resisters,” MPR News, June 4, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153872?t=14&akid=300443%2E4139708%2EgZjyeP
3. “Greenhouse gases from Line 3 pipeline raise questions about meeting Minnesota’s goals for cutting emissions,” StarTribune, March 28, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153873?t=16&akid=300443%2E4139708%2EgZjyeP
4. “Dawn Goodwin and 300 Environmental Groups Consider the new Line 3 Pipeline a Danger to All Forms of Life,” Inside Climate News, June 7, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153874?t=18&akid=300443%2E4139708%2EgZjyeP
5. “The Keystone XL pipeline project has been terminated,” The New York Times, June 9, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153875?t=20&akid=300443%2E4139708%2EgZjyeP
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