The Council of Canadians Brandon, Regina and Saskatoon chapters are opposed to the Line 3 tar sands pipeline.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau approved the construction of the new Enbridge Line 3 pipeline in November 2016 (at the same time he approved the 890,000 barrel per day Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline).
The building of Line 3 would mean 1,600 kilometres of new pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta to Superior Wisconsin on the western tip of Lake Superior. The original 390,000 barrel per day Line 3 pipeline was built in 1968 and would be decommissioned and left underground. The new larger pipeline would carry 760,000 barrel per day and would have the capacity to carry diluted bitumen for 50-60 years. Enbridge admits the pipeline would mean 19-26 megatonnes of upstream greenhouse gas emissions each year.
Notably, less than a year later, the Minnesota Department of Commerce concluded that “Minnesota would be better off if Enbridge proposed to cease operations of the existing Line 3, without any new pipeline being built.” The Associated Press has reported, “The Minnesota Department of Commerce says Enbridge Energy has failed to establish the need for its proposal to replace its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline across northern Minnesota. Instead, the department says it might be better to just shut down the existing line.”
On November 2, the Canadian Press reported, “Last week, the [Minnesota] Public Utilities Commission ruled Enbridge must publicly disclose its projections for potential oil spills on the line, including the probability of large spills at seven water crossings. The company had already submitted the data as part of an environmental impact statement, but had the information redacted from the public version…”
While the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission will not make its final decision on the pipeline until April 30, 2018, construction on it began this summer in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Wisconsin.
Non-violent direct actions have been taking place at work sites in Wisconsin through the Makwa Initiative, while Camp Turtle Island, a water protector camp, has been established in Minnesota.
The Council of Canadians first expressed its opposition to Line 3 in March 2014 and stands in solidarity with Canadian, American and Indigenous campaigns to stop the pipeline.
Enbridge says the pipeline should be completed by mid-2019.
#StopLine3 #LoveWaterNotOil #NoEnbridge #HonorTheTreaties
