“Anishinaabe Resistance to Line 3 Pipeline - Water Protectors seeing Dismissals of Criminal Cases”, May 16, 2022, Anon, Global Land Alliance, at < https://www.
And
“Drop the Charges”, N.D., anon, Stop Line 3, at < https://www.stopline3.org/
And
“Shut Down Line 5”, N.D., anon, Stop Line 3, at < https://www.stopline3.org/
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction by dmorista:
While over the past few weeks, more pressing and immediate issues have dominated the Corporate Controlled Media's Propaganda and Disinformation operations, the same old problems that bedeviled humanity are still simmering in the background. The first article, “Anishinaabe Resistance to Line 3 Pipeline - Water Protectors seeing Dismissals of Criminal Cases”, pointed out that during the struggle to protect the waters of Northern Minnesota, waged by members of the Anishinaabe Resistance and their allies, over 1,000 people were arrested in the effort to: “ … stop Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline, a massive tar sands project that threatens the state’s lakes, rivers, aquifers and wild rice beds. … (Furthermore) The Canadian energy transportation corporation, Enbridge, funded and collaborated with the police force in northern Minnesota, and we currently understand have paid for $8.6 million for costs associated with arresting and surveilling water protectors, including recent news of Aitkin County Sheriff billing 4,800 hours to Enbridge. …. 'We are proud to have stood in solidarity with the Anishanaabe people and do our small part in saying that Enbridge should not be allowed to further destroy the earth. Enbridge, with a history of over a billion dollars of damage to Anishanaabe waters and lands, is guilty of climate crimes against humanity and all beings. The police and judicial system are directly implicated with this subjugation of Mother Earth and her Indigenous caretakers, …. In the face of a global climate crisis, our governing bodies have chosen to protect the interests of capital, not humanity. …. What will it take for the law of the land to protect life on Earth, and the fragile human beings that we are? We urge the state to do what’s right and to drop all charges.' ”
The second article, “Drop the Charges”, further notes that: “These individuals put their bodies on the line to stop Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline, a massive tar sands project that threatens the state’s lakes, rivers, aquifers and wild rice beds. Police forces - directly funded by Enbridge - have responded to this massive movement with surveillance, harassment, physical torture ('pain compliance'), and trumped-up charges, including felonies. …. Water protectors have been doing the work that the State of Minnesota should be doing. Drop the charges! …. Over 1,000 arrests were made during the nine months of construction, and over 100 water protectors have been charged with trumped up felonies, with most of the felonies being bogus 'theft' charges.” (Emphases added)
What is clear from looking at the events of the past few years, in case the reader needs to be convinced or perhaps reminded, is that the forces of coercion, under the control of the state apparatus, are inevitably wielded against the popular protests and attempts to protect the Earth, and are used to smash those forces and further the interests of the rich and the corporations they own. Everywhere the Water Protectors were met by heavily armed gangs of official State Sponsored Thugs, sometimes augmented by vigilantes and sometimes not. When the cost of doing this exceeded the capability of the local governments and their police forces then the forces of the rich, in this case Enbridge Energy and Pipeline Company, subsidized the operations of official coercion and repression. The local prosecutors are requesting funds to try the various Water Protectors charged with outlandish “crimes”.
These actions were obviously designed to destroy the popular resistance to the outrageous destruction of the waters and lands, that the Anishinaabe depend on for their lives. The heedless pipeline construction damaged or destroyed large areas of land and polluted billions of gallons of waters. We must keep these outrages in mind when examining other operations by the Capitalist Governments and Corporations in places like Ukraine. The dramatic rise in the price of oil, since the start of the Ukraine War, was a great boon to these high price Extreme Fossil Fuel extraction operations. These include in the cases here, the Athabascan Tar Sands in Alberta, Canada and the Bakken Oil Shale deposits, in North Dakota.
The last article, “Shut Down Line 5”, points out that, in addition to the 69 year old and seriously structurally deficient, under the water crossing at the Straits of Mackinac, there are other serious problems with Line 5. In Northern Wisconsin: “Line 5 runs only a few miles from Lake Superior, and is increasingly likely to rupture in the Lake due to its age and a heightened frequency of severe storms brought on by climate change. The Band (of Chippewa) had been trying to access information from Enbridge in order to evaluate the pipeline’s risks to treaty resources, safety, and the environment since several of its easements expired in 2013. In 2017, following a 500 – year flood in the watershed in 2016, the Bad River Tribal Council denied the easements, requiring Enbridge to remove the 12-mile segment of the pipeline from the Reservation and watershed because of the health and safety risks it presented. But in the five years since, the segment has remained and oil continues to flow.
“Instead of removing the pipeline, Enbridge drafted two relocation plans: one within the Reservation boundaries and a second that situated the pipeline around the Reservation but still within the surrounding Bad River watershed. This second re-route does little to prevent the impacts of construction or an oil spill, and poses an even greater threat given the geography of the watershed: the surface water shares an intimate hydrological connection with the groundwater along the pipeline’s relocation, so construction or any leak will quickly contaminate tribal drinking water. The Tribe’s Reservation is located downstream, so discharges from construction, fill changes to water quality, or a spill anywhere upstream will make its way through the watershed and empty into the Reservation.”
The article also points out that: “.... Line 5 Pipeline threatens Tribal land, Treaty Rights in the ceded territory, the Great Lakes, and the climate. The pipeline, which is long past its lifespan, is currently pumping tar sands oil under expired permits.”
All three of the articles contain numerous links to other websites and other aspects of the issues facing the Great Lakes, the Northern Lakes area in Minnesota and other questions. The links include two to reports on options to keeping Line 5 in operation with no changes and one to an indepth article about the harsh prosecutions of Line 3 protesters. I include 3 links here, one is “OIL TRANSPORTATION ANALYSIS through the Chippewa Ceded Territories”, May 2017, Omar Carrillo Tinajero. Danny Foster. Sarah Leitson, Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Harvard University Native American Program, at < https://uwmadison.app.box.com/
Line 5 is now 69 years old, it was designed to last for 50 years. It has been poorly maintained and Enbridge has not fulfilled a large number of the stipulations under which they were granted the easements to build the line in 1953. It sits in a place of great natural beauty and in a water resource that most of the planet can only wish it had. It is far past time that this shoddy and dangerous pipeline was shut down permanently. Line 3 was pushed through with little regard for legal niceties or the damage the hurried shoddy work did to the environment and the people of Northern Minnesota. It is high time the U.S. exercised some National Sovereignty and brought these projects under serious control and regulation. The Governor and Attorney General of the State of Michigan have shown the way forward legally.
Anishinaabe Resistance to Line 3 Pipeline - Water Protectors seeing Dismissals of Criminal Cases
Violating Anishinaabe treaty territories in Minnesota, the new stretch of Line 3 was approved without full consent or proper impact studies, threatening safe water sources for millions. It carries the carbon equivalent of 50 coal plants. More than 68,000 Minnesotans testified against this plan.
Over 1,000 arrests were made during the nine months of construction. These individuals put their bodies on the line to stop Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline, a massive tar sands project that threatens the state’s lakes, rivers, aquifers and wild rice beds. Police forces - directly funded by Enbridge - have responded to this massive movement with surveillance, harassment, physical torture ("pain compliance"), and trumped-up charges, including felonies. In this time of climate catastrophe, governments must listen to water protectors instead of criminalizing and prosecuting them.
The Canadian energy transportation corporation, Enbridge, funded and collaborated with the police force in northern Minnesota, and we currently understand have paid for $8.6 million for costs associated with arresting and surveilling water protectors, including recent news of Aitkin County Sheriff billing 4,800 hours to Enbridge.
More recently, water protectors have seen a large number of their criminal cases dropped by prosecutors. A water protector said this of her dropped charges:
“We are proud to have stood in solidarity with the Anishanaabe people and do our small part in saying that Enbridge should not be allowed to further destroy the earth. Enbridge, with a history of over a billion dollars of damage to Anishanaabe waters and lands, is guilty of climate crimes against humanity and all beings. The police and judicial system are directly implicated with this subjugation of Mother Earth and her Indigenous caretakers, having received what we now understand to be $8.6 million dollars from a private company to terrorize water protectors.
In the face of a global climate crisis, our governing bodies have chosen to protect the interests of capital, not humanity. We live by the delusion that profit is boundless, while the resources that sustain us, our water, our land, fossilized fuels deep underground, even our own families – are very much finite. To the prosecutors, attorney general, police officers, DNR, army corps of engineers, President Biden– What will your legacy be, to your children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, as we face this climate crisis together? What is it that you love, and how do you want to be known for protecting it?
What will it take for the law of the land to protect life on Earth, and the fragile human beings that we are? We urge the state to do what’s right and to drop all charges.”
To learn more about the “Drop The Charges” campaign and the broader campaign to stop line 3, visit StopLine3.org and follow the Giniw Collective, Migizi Will Fly, Honor the Earth, and Resist Line 3
DROP THE CHARGES!
Hundreds of water protectors are currently facing criminal charges in Minnesota for standing in defense of the water, the climate, and the treaty rights of the Anishinaabeg people.
These individuals put their bodies on the line to stop Enbridge's Line 3 pipeline, a massive tar sands project that threatens the state’s lakes, rivers, aquifers and wild rice beds. Police forces - directly funded by Enbridge - have responded to this massive movement with surveillance, harassment, physical torture ("pain compliance"), and trumped-up charges, including felonies. In this time of climate catastrophe, governments must listen to water protectors instead of criminalizing and prosecuting them.
Water protectors have been doing the work that the State of Minnesota should be doing. Drop the charges!
Water Protectors Arrested Resisting Line 3 Pipeline Call on State Officials to "Drop the Charges"
PRESS RELEASE
(Anishinaabe Akiing, Minnesota) -- 11-17-2021 -- Today, defendants arrested while opposing the construction of Enbridge’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline launched a campaign calling on Minnesota’s elected leadership to drop all criminal charges against over 700 water protectors. A Drop the Charges petition to MN Governor Tim Walz and Attorney General Keith Ellison has already garnered over 13,000 signatures. Organizers of the campaign describe the charges as unjust based on the brutal policing tactics that the Enbridge corporation directly funded, the violation of Anishinaabe treaty rights, and the project’s contribution to catastrophic climate change.
Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, said about the campaign launch, “It's entirely wrong that Enbridge—a foreign oil corporation— has committed egregious crimes against the water and people, yet it’s us who are being prosecuted. Every day that pipeline is in operation, Minnesotans are in danger. It must be shut down, and all charges against Water Protectors must be dropped. ”
Over 1,000 arrests were made during the nine months of construction, and over 100 water protectors have been charged with trumped up felonies, with most of the felonies being bogus “theft” charges. The Canadian energy transportation corporation, Enbridge, funded and collaborated with the police force in northern Minnesota, and has so far paid police nearly $3 million for costs associated with arresting and surveilling water protectors, including recent news of Aitkin County Sheriff billing 4,800 hours to Enbridge.
Shut Down Line 5
ABOVE IS BY GLIFWC AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
Aaron Shultz, Adam Ray, Alexandra Bohman, Ann McCammon Soltis, Ben Michaels, Bill Mattes, Dawn White, Dylan Jennings, Esteban Chiriboga, Hannah Panci, James Thannum, Jen Vanator, Jim Stone, John Coleman, Jonathan Gilbert, Melonee Montano, Miles Falck, Philomena Kebec, Robert Croll, Travis Bartnick, Waasegiizhig Michael Price.
Maps, figures, and photographs were produced by GLIFWC unless noted otherwise.
TAKE ACTION FOR THE GREAT LAKES REGION IN WISCONSIN, NOW
ENBRIDGE LINE 5 EXPANSION
PUBLIC WRITTEN COMMENT PERIODS END MARCH 7 (ARMY CORPS) and MARCH 18 (DNR). GET INVOLVED.
PUBLIC INPUT OPPORTUNITY – DRAFT EIS ON ENBRIDGE LINE 5
On Dec. 16, 2021 the DNR released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (dEIS) on Enbridge's proposed relocation of its Line 5 petroleum pipeline in Ashland, Bayfield and Iron Counties. Access the two-volume Draft EIS below, under Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
The public is invited to review, provide testimony and written comments on the dEIS.
On January 27, 7pm CT there was a webinar Tips and Tricks for Testifying on Line 5 covering the basics on Enbridge's Line 5 and how to comment or testify. There is also a toolkit. On Feb 1, 4-7pm CT there will be Open Office Hours for testimony preparation support.
The DNR held a virtual Public Hearing on the dEIS on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022.
LINE 5 HEARING LASTED 10 HOURS.
PRO: 20 | ANTI: 147 -- 12% FOR, 88% AGAINST
Live Hearing Now posted onto YouTube below.
DNR WRITTEN COMMENT PERIOD EXTENDED FROM MARCH 4, 2022 TO MARCH 18, 2022.
In addition, written comments can be sent by email to DNROEEACOMMENTS@WI.GOV or by U.S. mail to "Line 5 EIS Comments, DNR (EA/7)," 101 South Webster Street, Madison, WI 53707. All electronic and hardcopy comments must be submitted or postmarked no later than Friday, March 18, 2022.
Here’s a one-stop action page from Wisconsin’s Sierra Club.
We can harness the power of our Line 3 experience to #RejectLine5!
PROPOSED LINE 5 RELOCATION PROJECT
The existing Line 5 pipeline runs from Superior to the upper peninsula of Michigan through the Straits of Mackinac and lower peninsula of Michigan to Canada. Line 5 crosses through approximately 12 miles of the Bad River Reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Enbridge is proposing a reroute of Line 5 around the Bad River Reservation.
Additional information regarding the segment of Line 5 within the Bad River Reservation, including a lawsuit [PDF] filed by the Bad River Band, can be found in this brochure [PDF exit DNR] created by the Mashkiiziibii Natural Resources Department.
Enbridge is proposing to relocate a 41-mile-long portion of its existing Line 5 pipeline with new 30-inch diameter pipe within Ashland, Bayfield, and Iron County, WI. Enbridge must receive all necessary local, state and federal permits and/or approvals before construction of the Line 5 relocation project can begin.
Enbridge generally proposes to use a 120-foot wide construction right-of-way (ROW) for the new pipeline, which would allow for temporary storage of topsoil and subsoil, and accommodate safe operation of construction equipment. The construction corridor would include a 50-foot wide permanent ROW plus temporary workspaces needed to complete construction.
Proposed LINE 5 Route & Alternatives
View larger map. [PDF exit DNR]
RED CLIFF BAND OF LAKE SUPERIOR CHIPPEWA LAUNCHES FACTSHEET
Line 5 draft Environmental Impact Statement Fact Sheet
Line 5 is a pipeline that is owned by Enbridge. It was built in 1953 and transports an average of 540,000 barrels/day of mostly tar sands oil from Superior, Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario. The pipeline crosses Bad River and the Straits of Mackinac.
What is the project being proposed?
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