Court of Appeals Upholds PUC’s Illegal Permits for Enbridge’s Line 3 Pipeline

St. Paul, MN -- Today, the Minnesota Court of Appeals announced it will uphold the Public Utilities Commission’s 2020 approval of Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline. The Red Lake, White Earth, and Mille Lacs Bands, the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Honor the Earth, the Youth Climate Intervenors, Friends of the Headwaters, and the Sierra Club had challenged the PUC’s illegal permit approvals by filing an appeal.

Pipeline opponents argued that the PUC failed to demonstrate demand for the tar sands oil that Line 3 would transport across more than 200 bodies of water, including lakes, wetlands, and rivers, posing serious risks to Minnesota’s freshwater resources and the lake country of northern Minnesota where the Ojibwe people harvest wild rice and hold treaty rights. Tar sands oil is the dirtiest and most climate-polluting fuel source on the planet. Judge Peter Reyes issued a dissenting opinion, noting that the PUC “committed legal errors and acted arbitrarily or capriciously by granting [Enbridge] a certificate of need that is unsupported by substantial evidence.”

Today’s ruling comes in the wake of a powerful series of protests along the pipeline route in Northern Minnesota, during which thousands of frontline Indigenous-led water protectors and allies gathered to block construction of the pipeline and call on federal officials to revoke Enbridge’s permits to build Line 3. For the past week, Anishinaabe band members have exercised their treaty rights and peacefully occupied a site on the Mississippi headwaters where Enbridge plans to drill its Line 3 pipeline under the river. Yesterday, Enbridge issued a letter demanding that they depart the premises.

In response, coalition members who have been fighting this project for years released the following statements:

“Today’s decision is deeply disappointing and paves the way for the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to continue to disregard the health of our communities, water, and climate as well as the ways of life and treaty rights of Ojibwe people. Construction on Line 3 is underway - all eyes now turn to the Biden administration to live up to their commitments to climate action and Indigenous rights by stopping Line 3,” said Margaret Levin, State Director of the Sierra Club North Star Chapter.

“We are sorely disappointed in this decision that allows the state of Minnesota under Gov. Walz  to continue to shove a pipeline through Ojibwe lands and waters at a time of escalating climate crisis,” adds Winona LaDuke, Executive Director and co-founder of Honor the Earth. “One immediate result is that hundreds of more arrests of Water Protectors will occur because of this in the Deep North. We stand with the insightful dissension offered in the decision by Judge Reyes: ‘This case is about substitution. Substituting supply for demand. Substituting ‘shippers’ for ‘refineries.’ Substituting ‘pipeline capacity’ for ‘crude oil.’ Substituting conclusory, unsupported demand assumptions for reviewable ‘long-range energy demand forecasts.’ And substituting an agency’s will for its judgment.’” 

“Today's court decision is a step backwards, but not the end of this years-long fight to protect the health and livability of our state and climate. Fossil fuel companies' profit-driven desire to ship more oil does not equal a need for a new pipeline. The world is changing, and now more than ever, we know that building an unnecessary new tar sands pipeline with the emissions of 50 coal plants represents an old and reckless way of thinking. This movement will continue working to resist this toxic project, and President Biden must act now to ensure it is never completed.” said Brent Murcia, certified student attorney for the Youth Climate Intervenors. 

“Last week thousands of Indigenous leaders, organizers, and allies said loud and clear that the Line 3 climate catastrophe should not move forward, and we say the same thing today. Time for our world is running out. Every day new evidence surfaces telling us we need to act now to stave off the worst of climate change, yet our elected leaders, and now the MN Court of Appeals, fail to take action. We need President Biden and Gov. Walz to show real leadership and stop Line 3 for good.” -- Sam Grant, Executive Director of MN350