The transition from carbon intensive forms of energy to more sustainable forms is accelerating across the United States and the world. With this change, the Wisconsin Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change made a proposition to avoid all new fossil fuel investments. We call on Governor Evers, the Task Force on Climate Change, and all other decision makers to follow through with this commitment -- shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 re-route in Wisconsin and deny Dairyland Power Cooperative’s proposed Nemadji Trail Energy Center (NTEC) fossil gas plant in Superior, Wisconsin.
In December 2020, Governor Tony Evers’ Task Force on Climate Change issued a report on proposed plans to address challenges that have been brought on by climate change and how to get Wisconsin to 100% clean energy.
One of the task force’s proposed solutions to address these challenges across Wisconsin is to avoid all new fossil fuel investments. Specifically, they say,
“Wisconsin cannot take meaningful climate action without bold action to reduce the use of fossil fuels and pivot to renewable energy. To stay within the Paris Agreement climate goals, we cannot build any new fossil fuel infrastructure, including infrastructure for the production and transportation of fossil fuels, such as wells, refineries, pipelines, and shipping terminals … Any expansion of fossil fuel energy production will add to the inequitable burden on low-income communities and communities of color, both urban and rural.”
Following through with this commitment requires the task force to deny Enbridge’s proposal to re-route one of its pipelines, Line 5, and deny Dairyland Power's proposed NTEC fossil gas plant. Line 5 is a tar sands pipeline that runs from Superior, Wisconsin through the Straits of Mackinac, and eventually to Sarnia, Ontario. Currently, Enbrdige is proposing to re-route Line 5 around the Bad River Reservation, where the pipeline currently runs. Additionally, were it to be built, NTEC would burn fossil gas on the edge of the Nemadji River, posing a thread to our air, water, health, climate, and communities.
Line 5 has to go. It violates an 1854 treaty made between the Bad River Band and the U.S. government that gave the tribe rights to protect the land, and it poses a severe risk to the tribe’s water supply and ability to sustain themselves through harvesting rice fields and maintaining fish hatcheries. Rerouting Line 5 would be just as damaging, as Enbridge plans to relocate 41 miles of the pipeline through Ashland, Bayfield, and Iron Counties in Wisconsin. Not only would this leave these communities at a higher risk of oil spills, but the Band River Band would also still be at risk because the rerouted pipeline would edge their land, thereby posing risk to oil contaminating their watershed. The re-route goes through ceded territory, and would still violate the tribe’s rights to fish, hunt, and gather on that land, as well as potentially impact community members and wildlife’s health and well-being.
The NTEC project must also be halted. Approving Dairyland Power's proposal to build a fossil gas plant would move us in the wrong direction -- it's clear that fossil gas plays no part in a transition to clean, renewable energy. Fossil gas, like other fossil fuels, is old news. The methane released through fossil gas fracking and transport is 86 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2 over a 20-year period, and renewable energy generation is now cheaper than burning fossil fuels. Wisconsin leaders cannot allow Dairyland Power to move forward with its proposal.
Our decision makers cannot turn a blind eye to these projects. They must prioritize and protect the lives of Indigenous and other communities of color and low-income communities in Wisconsin. And we must hold them accountable to follow through with this commitment.
Decision makers of all kinds -- from Governor Evers and the Task Force to the Department of Natural Resources -- can only be advocates for clean, renewable energy if they deny permits for Dairyland Power's proposed NTEC plant, stop the Line 5 re-route, and avoid all new fossil fuel infrastructure investments.
Written by Alex Garner, Organizing Intern with the Sierra Club Wisconsin Chapter