Environmental groups long opposed to Line 3 are urging state and federal agencies to step in as pollution along the Line 3 route continues to surface. Construction of the tar sands pipeline was completed in September, but as the weather has shifted, spilled drilling fluid has continued to emerge along the pipeline route.
This week, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro filed 46 counts of environmental crimes against Energy Transfer for violations during their construction of the Mariner East 2 Pipeline. A grand jury added two more counts based on a criminal referral from the Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection. The charges stem from the company’s releasing industrial waste at 22 sites across the state that contaminated a number of streams and rivers.
Harrisburg, PA -- Today, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced a slew of criminal charges against Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Mariner East II pipeline and other controversial projects including Dakota Access.
Today, Canadian oil company Enbridge announced that tar sands oil will start flowing through the Line 3 pipeline this Friday.
Today the developers of the controversial PennEast pipeline project announced they were cancelling the project after being denied necessary water quality permits.
PennEast Pipeline Co. LLC’s 116-mile pipeline would have shipped fracked Marcellus Shale gas from Northeast Pennsylvania, across the Delaware River to New Jersey, where it would likely be sold to be burned in foreign countries.
Richmond, VA -- Today, the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VADEQ) issued a draft water quality certification for the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline under section 401 of the Clean Water Act. In March, the VADEQ asked the Army Corps of Engineers for a year to review and issue the draft water permit, and in June the Corps granted VADEQ only six months.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency now says that Enbridge has had at least 27 spills of drilling fluid during the construction of the controversial Line 3 pipeline. Enbridge has polluted the water at 63% of their horizontal directional drilling (HDD) sites with drilling fluid containing numerous polluting chemicals, despite claiming that HDD is Enbridge the safest technology available.
Saint Paul, MN -- Groups filed a legal challenge with the Minnesota Supreme Court today appealing a lower court’s decision to uphold the Public Utilities Commission’s 2020 approval of Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline.
Backers of the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline announced a new scheme today to purchase carbon offsets to make up for the operational emissions of its first 10 years in service. These offsets would do nothing to address the climate impact of extracting or burning the fracked gas that MVP would transport.
Washington, DC -- Today the Supreme Court ruled that private companies can take state land for new fracked gas pipelines, which likely speeds the construction of a controversial project that threatens the Potomac River.
Washington, DC -- Today, the Supreme Court ruled that private companies can take state land for new fracked gas pipelines, likely speeding the construction of the controversial PennEast pipeline project.
Washington, DC -- Today, the Biden administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a brief defending the Trump administration’s position on Line 3 in a federal lawsuit challenging a key permit for the controversial tar sands pipeline project.