Statement in Opposition to Line 3
The following statement is written as a letter to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, urging him to use his executive power to stop the pipeline. This letter was sent to Tim Walz’s office on June 7th, 2021.
At the capitol building in Saint Paul. Photo credit Brianna Crowley.
Dear Governor Tim Walz,
The choices you make during these urgent times of climate chaos will determine your legacy as the executive leader of the state of Minnesota. We are reaching a planetary tipping point and your administration’s decision to enable the fossil fuel industry will have impacts and implications far beyond the borders of Minnesota.
The Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline poses a severe threat to our clean waters and future generations. Eighteen million people live downstream of these proposed pipeline crossings; we drink, cook, and wash with the waters of the Mississippi River. To accept Enbridge’s questionable promises for safety on this project and the shortsighted environmental impact assessment is an act of negligence. We urge you to follow conscience, which on any point of analysis will tell you this pipeline is the wrong infrastructure project for Minnesota.
As an organization dedicated to strengthening food sovereignty in the Twin Cities Metro area, North Country Food Alliance believes that people have the right to intimate connection with their culture and the source of their foods. We are deeply concerned that the Line 3 tar sands pipeline threatens the ecological stability of wild rice. This sacred food of the Anishinaabe people is integral to cultural ceremonies and to livelihood for Native harvesters. We find it an appalling act of injustice to completely disregard the Anishinaabe people’s legal rights to safely hunt, fish, and collect their medicines as granted by the 1855 treaty. All of us can empathize with the need for clean water, good food, stable income, and connection to culture.
This pipeline has been publicly resisted for seven years. Minnesotans have sat in hearings, sent thousands of public comments, and taken part in demonstrations. We’ve given testimony in accordance with the science that declares this pipeline is an unnecessary and incredibly dangerous project to human and non-human life. Despite this, the offices meant to represent our interests have failed us and future generations. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Public Utilities Commission granted the permits and cleared the regulatory process for Enbridge to continue this extraction of the dirtiest, crudest oil on the planet. Enbridge will soon start drilling under the beautiful rivers of our state, but it’s not too late for you to truly honor your campaign promises to oppose Line 3 and your commitment to Executive Order 19-24 that you signed for respectful relationship with Minnesota Tribal Nations. We ask you to take courageous executive action along with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to evict Enbridge from our state and stop the Line 3 pipeline expansion project, so that irreversible damage to our water and ecosystems is not your legacy.
Sincerely,
The Workers and Board of North Country Food Alliance