Jonathon Berman, (202) 495-3033, joanthon.berman@sierraclub.org
Minneapolis, MN -- Yesterday, the Department of State’s comment period for environmental review of Canadian company Enbridge’s Alberta Clipper pipeline concluded with high public participation. Nearly 90,000 comments in opposition to the project were submitted, with Americans sharing their serious concerns with the current draft environmental review.
“Expanding the Alberta Clipper pipeline puts lands, waters, and communities at risk of devastating oil spills. It's not a question of whether a pipeline will spill, but rather when. That’s why Minnesotans and concerned citizens across the region are calling to reject Enbridge's dirty and dangerous scheme,” said Margaret Levin, State Director of the Sierra Club North Star Chapter.
If fully expanded, the Alberta Clipper pipeline would carry a greater volume of tar sands than even the recently approved Keystone XL pipeline. This comment period ends at a time when opposition to fossil fuel pipelines including the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipeline is at an all-time high.
“The Alberta Clipper tar sands expansion is about more than just one pipeline,” said Andy Pearson, Midwest Tar Sands Coordinator with MN350. “The oil this expansion would bring across the international border would set off a cascade of downstream effects, including allowing the reckless construction of a new Line 3 pipeline through the Mississippi headwaters and protected native treaty territory. The State Department’s own numbers say this expansion would have the global warming impact of four new coal fired power plants or three million new vehicles on the road per year.”
"If the State Department approves the Alberta Clipper expansion, they are supporting Enbridge's plans downstream to make the interconnected Line 61 pipeline the world's largest tar sands pipeline outside of Russia, starting on the shores of the world's largest freshwater resource, and traveling through major rivers and streams in Wisconsin, threatening one of Wisconsin's largest industries--the tourism industry that sustains many local communities. Furthermore, this will enable Enbridge to move forward on plans to build another tar sands pipeline (the Line 61-twin) through the heart of Wisconsin. The new pipeline could allow Enbridge to take the land and even homes of hard-working Wisconsinites for their private gain,” said Elizabeth Ward of the Sierra Club John Muir Chapter.
Enbridge was responsible for the 2010 Kalamazoo tar sands spill and operates a network of pipelines across the Great Lakes region. In Minnesota, it is attempting to expand the Alberta Clipper pipeline at the U.S.-Canadian border and, downstream, expand capacity and reroute part of its aging Line 3 pipeline. Both pipelines carry tar sands from Alberta Canada to various U.S. locations through their mainline system.
“Young people in Minnesota and across the country have consistently and courageously stood in opposition to the expansion of tar sands oil pipelines, including the Alberta Clipper. These projects exploit our communities, from the extraction sites to the refineries, and jeopardize every mile of the land and water we rely on in between. The oil Enbridge wants to transport is the most carbon intensive on earth, making the Alberta Clipper pipeline expansion a direct assault on our generation’s right to a safe and stable climate,” says Akilah Sanders-Reed of with Power Shift Network. “Continuing to prioritize oil profits over people is economically and morally indefensible, and our generation will continue fighting to stop the Alberta Clipper and all other destructive oil pipelines.”
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