Groups Submit Briefs Laying out Case Against Line 3 Pipeline

St. Paul, MN -- Today, environmental groups, Tribes, Youth Climate Intervenors, and other stakeholders submitted their briefs on Enbridge’s proposed Line 3 tar sands pipeline to Administrative Law Judge Ann O'Reilly, who will make a final recommendation to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on the pipeline.

In their briefs, the groups laid out the reasons Enbridge should not be granted the permits to build this tar sands pipeline through Minnesota, and the threats it would pose to the state’s land, water, and communities, as well as our climate.

Quotes from each party’s brief are below:

Honor the Earth: “Our society stands on the cusp of a profound energy transition away from fossil fuels, including crude oil. Technological improvements in renewable energy generation, energy storage, electric and autonomous vehicle technology, and computing power are compelling this transition. Together, these advances will make electric vehicles the predominant form of personal and commercial transportation, and result in an end to the age of oil.  Essentially, Enbridge requests that the Public Utilities Commission invest in a horse cart factory just as the first automobiles are beginning to roll down America’s streets.”

Fond Du Lac Band: “Despite the fact that this is one of the largest construction projects in state history, and despite repeated calls for better analysis, the record includes profoundly incomplete review of impacts on wild rice, off-reservation treaty resources, and historic properties of importance not just to Minnesota tribes but to all Minnesotans.”  

Sierra Club: “Intervening parties have demonstrated that clean technologies like wind power, solar power, and electric vehicles (“EVs”) are a practical and preferable alternative without any of the huge environmental costs of the proposed L3R pipeline.”

Youth Climate Intervenors: “The earth’s climate is changing, and those changes are a result of human activity. Science tells us that to avert the worst of this catastrophe, we must act immediately and decisively. It is already almost too late. To build any new fossil fuel infrastructure in this moment is simply madness. To build a pipeline that threatens our water and tramples on indigenous sovereignty is beyond that - it is thoroughly and deeply unjust. The Youth Climate Intervenors have grown up watching those in power make decisions that will shape the world we grow into. We cannot afford to watch business as usual any longer.”

Friends of the Headwaters: “Opening up a new crude oil pipeline corridor through high-value, sensitive natural resources poses unnecessary and unacceptable environmental risks, both in construction and operation. If there is genuinely a ‘need’ for additional pipeline capacity, there are alternative routes that better ‘minimize human and environmental impact,’ as the law requires.”

Northern Water Alliance: “Northern Water Alliance supports the record created by the DOC DER finding that the Enbridge proposal does not meet the requirements of the Certificate of need in that there is more risk to the State of Minnesota than benefit, especially to its public water resources."  

White Earth and Red Lake Bands of Chippewa Indians: “Enbridge has the present capacity to ship 2.6 million barrels of crude oil per day on its Mainline system. This capacity, together with the present rapid transition to renewable energy, makes the new Line 3 completely unnecessary.”