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Wisconsin Approves Pipeline Reroute Near Bad River Reservation

According to Indigenous water protectors, it’s not a matter of whether a pipeline will rupture and leak, but when. The federal government’s own data supports this, with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration reporting that there were 1.5 incidents per day in 2023. But in northern Wisconsin on the Bad River Reservation, the incontrovertible claim that the safest way to build a pipeline is not to build one at all isn’t being heeded. On Nov. 14, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) granted the Canadian pipeline corporation Enbridge the permits needed to proceed with a plan to build a 41-mile section of pipeline around the Bad River Reservation.

Colorado-Based Water Protector Faces Trial, Shares Wisdom

When Mylene Vialard followed her 21-year-old daughter across the US to join the thousands of the resistance by Water Protectors led by Indigenous women at Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, her aim was clear: to help make change, not just for the Indigenous people whose treaty rights, lifeways, and bodies have been violated, but for everyone. What she didn’t know was how much the experience would change her. That was two years ago. Today, up to 760,000 barrels of tar sands oil (bitumen), a particularly resource-intensive and harmful form of crude petroleum, gush from Alberta to Wisconsin through the completed pipeline, and the Boulder-based activist is one of several activists around the US who face felony charges in northern Minnesota’s Aitkin County. Vialard’s trial is the week of August 28.

Enbridge Ordered To Shutdown Line 5 And Pay Bad River Band $5.1 Million

Ashland, Wisconsin — Canadian oil corporation Enbridge has been ordered to shut down its Line 5 tar sands oil pipeline and pay the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians $5.1 million. Chief Judge William M. Conley of the U.S. District Court for Wisconsin ruled on June 16, 2023 that Enbridge must adopt a more conservative shutdown and purge plan for its remaining time on the Bad River Indian Reservation. Water protectors gathered on the day of the ruling in Ashland, Wisconsin to demand the immediate emergency shutdown of Line 5. Unicorn Riot heard from water protectors on the state of the Line 5 fight and why they actively protest.

Judge Orders Stretch Of Enbridge Line 5 Shut Down On Tribal Land

The Canadian oil company Enbridge has been ordered to pay the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa $5 million in damages for trespassing and to gradually shut down part of its Line 5 pipeline in Wisconsin after a federal judge found that the company has placed the tribe's sacred land at risk of an environmental disaster. U.S. District Judge William Conley of the Western District of Wisconsin handed down the ruling on Friday after the Bad River Band argued in court that there are now fewer than 15 feet between parts of Line 5 and the Bad River following the partial erosion of the riverbank in recent months.

How A Pipeline Company Paid Minnesota Millions To Police Protests

The morning of June 7, 2021, Sheriff’s Deputy Chuck Nelson of Beltrami County, Minnesota, bought water and refreshments, packed his gear, and prepared for what would be, in his own words, “a long day.” For over six months, Indigenous-led opponents of the Line 3 project had been participating in acts of civil disobedience to disrupt construction of the tar sands oil pipeline, arguing that it would pollute water, exacerbate the climate crisis, and violate treaties with the Anishinaabe people. Officers like Nelson were stuck in the middle of a conflict, sworn to protect the rights of both the pipeline company Enbridge and its opponents. Nelson drove 30 minutes to Hubbard County, where he and officers from 14 different police and sheriff’s departments confronted around 500 protesters, known as water protectors, occupying a pipeline pump station.

Enbridge Takes The Gloves Off In Line 5 Battle

In recent lawsuits, Enbridge has targeted individual tribal members and staff, seeking the court’s permission to question them under oath about their “thought process” in opposing renewal of the company’s easement through the reservation. For Bad River citizens and leaders, however, the issue has always been personal. Bad River or Mashkiziibii (Medicine River) has an abiding, irremovable quality for Ojibwe people. Central to their world view and spirituality, and an example of their sustainable connection with traditional foods and ways, Bad River is more than geography. The river and land represent Ojibwe blood memory, according to Aurora Conley, a citizen of the Bad River tribe and a member of the Anishinaabe Environmental Protection Alliance.

The Economics Of Climate Accountability

"The Enbridge terminal expansion is planned to be constructed in the ancestral settlement and land of the Karankawa Kadla, where thousands of sacred Karankawa artifacts remain and ceremony and prayer have continued for the past 2,000 years,” said a news release from the Indigenous Environmental Network. The release also included a simple line asking for “accountability from Enbridge and Bank of America". That word “accountability” shifts the protest to another kind of action, one based on ESG standards; a metric that includes Environment, Social and Governance as well as the planning for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Both Bank of America and Enbridge say they have ESG plans and are on track to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Indigenous Leaders Pledge To Oppose New Enbridge Developments

On November 5, the Canadian oil company Enbridge announced that it plans to increase capacity on its pipeline system that connects a crude-oil storage hub in Oklahoma to the Texas Gulf Coast, now that the Line 3 pipeline linking Alberta and Wisconsin is complete. The Carrizo Comecrudo and other Indigenous groups in the area, along with the Indigenous Environmental Network, have pledged to protect Indigenous sacred sites and oppose future pipeline developments.  Increasing capacity may include building a new pipeline linking the Houston area to the Port of Corpus Christi, more than 200 miles away. In October, Enbridge acquired the Ingleside Energy Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, the largest crude-exporting hub in the U.S. 

Three Pipeline Protesters Arrested After Large Sit-In At Energy Giant’s Offices

Three activists who refused to leave the Waltham offices of the pipeline company Enbridge were arrested by police Wednesday afternoon, ending a more than 27-hour occupation in protest of the multi-national energy giant behind the controversial Weymouth compressor station and other fossil fuel projects around the country. Waltham police say they arrested Nathan Phillips, a 54-year-old Auburndale resident; Alexander Chambers, a 22-year-old Boylston resident; and Samantha Hayward, a 22-year-old Castleton, Vermont, resident. Each was charged with one count of trespassing. “This group held space throughout the night and into the afternoon today,” organizers of the protest wrote Wednesday on Facebook. “We will keep fighting,” they added.

More Arrests Along Enbridge Line 3

Three people were arrested Monday at a prayer lodge along the Mississippi River near an Enbridge construction site as questions persist that the pipeline work is worsening water shortages in northern Minnesota. According to the Aitkin County sheriff’s office, three people were charged with misdemeanor trespass and remained in custody late Tuesday. Police did not release their names. Meanwhile, a large law enforcement presence remained near the prayer lodge Tuesday, said Shania Mattson, a water protector from Palisade, Minnesota. The prayer lodge was built by Tania Aubid of the Milles Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Winona LaDuke of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe on 1855 Treaty ceded lands that are guaranteed for use by Ojibwe people for hunting, fishing and gathering, according to LaDuke and Aubid. LaDuke is executive director of Honor the Earth, a Native American environmental advocacy organization.

Treaty People Gathering Draws Thousands

Mahnomen, MN—Thousands swarmed northern Minnesota over the weekend for the Treaty People Gathering, an event organized to stand against the ongoing construction of the Enbridge Line 3 replacement project. Crowds of well over 2,000 people gathered on Monday morning  at the headwaters of the Mississippi River for a treaty ceremony in the largest gathering yet against the pipeline since construction began in December 2020. Indigenous-led groups, communities of faith, and climate justice organizations organized the Treaty People Conference, which organizers say marks the beginning of a summer of resistance. “We have tried to stop this pipeline for the last seven years,” said Honor the Earth Executive Director and White Earth tribal citizen Winona LaDuke to Native News Online.

Protests Over Enbridge’s Pipeline Are Expected To Intensify

It could be a long, hot summer for the $3 billion pipeline Enbridge is building across northern Minnesota. As workers start the final push to complete the pipeline, a replacement for the company's deteriorating Line 3 and one of the largest construction projects in the state in recent years, protests are expected to intensify starting Monday. Meanwhile, a key court decision due this month could halt construction of the new Line 3 if the ruling goes against Enbridge, jeopardizing the Canadian company's plans to have oil running through the pipeline in the fourth quarter. "We're about 60% complete overall," Enbridge CEO Al Monaco told analysts on a recent earnings call. "So I think it's late summer, early September when all the pipe will be in the ground."

Enbridge Is ‘Funding And Incentivizing’ Police To Crack Down On Its Opponents

Park Rapids, MN - Jane Fonda’s trip to Minnesota has not gone exactly as planned. She expected attention from the media. She did not expect attention from the police. The actress and climate activist told HEATED on Tuesday that her much-publicized press conference to oppose the Line 3 tar sands pipeline was delayed because of an extended interaction with the Minnesota State Patrol. On her way to the event, the vehicle leading her caravan was pulled over for failure to signal more than 100 feet before a turn. “We pulled over to wait for them, it took a long time to process their identification, and they ended up not being ticketed,” she said. “Then we drove 12 miles to the press conference and the police car followed us the whole way.”

‘Pipe Dream’: Enbridge Escalates Local Tensions

Palisade, Minnesota – Even in the bitter cold, the pretty little park along the Mississippi River is inviting, a typical gathering spot for community events with its broad trees and public pavilion. But Berglund Park stood empty recently as families and community members huddled around warming fires in an open field nearby, listening to music and eating Indian tacos as they learned about the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline cutting through their community. A group of pipeline opponents known as water protectors from the nearby Honor the Earth camp organized the small winter carnival to provide information about the impact of dependence on fossil fuels and a future built on renewable energy.

Water Protectors Chain Themselves Inside Enbridge Line 3 Pipe

Minnesota - Water protectors were arrested Thursday after halting construction at a Minnesota worksite for Enbridge's Line 3 project by locking themselves together inside a pipe segment. "After moving to Minnesota to attend college and study environmental science, I was excited to be in a place where people valued protecting the Earth and finding a viable future. What I found, however, was a state that had formed 'ambitious' climate goals yet endorsed one of the dirtiest fossil fuels, tar sands oil," water protector Abby Hornberger said in a statement. "I realized that Indigenous ways of knowing and practicing harmony with the environment are continuously ignored."

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