BOTH SIDES OF THE ENBRIDGE PIPELINE DEBATE
The Public Utilities Commission on Thursday unanimously approved a 2.6 billion-dollar pipeline that the Canadian oil company Enbridge wants to build across northern Minnesota. The “certificate of need” was granted to construct a replacement for Line 3, which was built in the 1960s. The P-U-C also approved the proposed pipeline route, by a 3-to-2 vote, with a change in the Big Sandy Lake area of Aitkin and Carlton counties which moves the pipeline away from the lake.
Environmental groups and several American Indian bands fiercely oppose the project, and plan a possible appeal, but it’s supporters, which include Enbridge customers, labor unions and the Minnesota counties that the pipeline will pass through, point to the more than four-thousand construction jobs and new tax revenue the project would create.
While the P-U-C decision is a major step for Enbridge, the company must get 29 required state, local and federal permits before it can begin construction on the 340-mile pipeline.
Winona LaDuke – Honor the Earth
Bob Schoneberger – Minnesotans For Line 3