During the COVID-19 crisis, it is imperative that we protect our communities as best we can and ensure we’re doing everything we can to avoid increasing the risk to others. We have all been told to stay at home, non-essential operations have shut down, and we wear masks if we need to leave. Unfortunately, one company sees the expansion of their oil pipeline as more important than the health of Northern Wisconsinites.
Despite the emergency order in Wisconsin, Enbridge continues to bring out-of-state workers to the region. These contractors come from all over the country, as close as Minnesota and as far as Utah. They stay in area hotels, stop at gas stations, and get take-out from local restaurants. All of these actions put the Northwoods community at risk. But for what?
Enbridge’s work in Northern Wisconsin is not essential. They are merely doing preliminary work for their proposed expansion of the Line 5 pipeline. Other energy companies have stopped similar projects, citing the risk to employee health, yet Enbridge marches on. Enbridge knows this and is taking advantage of the public health crisis to push their controversial project forward.
This could have disastrous consequences. Not only is Enbridge putting their own employees at risk, but they are endangering a vulnerable rural community that does not have the resources to support a full blown COVID outbreak. This region has just one major hospital serving about 40,000 individuals. This institution has just four ventilators. Such a healthcare system, as is the case in much of rural America, is utterly unprepared for a widespread outbreak of a disease like COVID-19. We cannot let out-of-state workers continue to work on non-essential projects and put our community at risk.
Line 5 is already a massive threat to this region; its outdated infrastructure poses catastrophic risk to surrounding water sources every day. This is just another way Enbridge shows its lack of regard for our wellbeing. We must take action to stop Enbridge from moving forward on this project during a global pandemic.
Please sign this petition to ask Governor Evers to stop Enbridge from exploiting this crisis. Also, please consider getting involved with our Tar Sands team to work to decommission Line 5 altogether!
https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/decommission-line-5
Written by Katherine Scotty, Organizing Project Aide with the Sierra Club Wisconsin Chapter.