On September 3, Representatives Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota; Cori Bush Democrat of Missouri; Ayanna Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts; and Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, held a press conference in Minneapolis calling on President Joe Biden to shut down the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline, which would transfer oil from Alberta, Canada, to Superior, Wisconsin. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, was planning on attending but remained in New York to assist with the flooding caused by Hurricane Ida.
“President Biden has the opportunity, and the responsibility in making good on his word to be the climate President, and must direct the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the permit for Line 3.”
“The voices of Indigenous people are often not prioritized,” Omar said. “We want this issue to be elevated and for it to be important enough for the President to take action.”
On August 30, Omar, along with sixty-three other elected officials, sent a letter to Biden calling on him to take action against Line 3.
At a roundtable on September 4, the Representatives and tribal leaders discussed the treaty violations and lack of tribal consent associated with Line 3. Afterward, they visited the Mississippi Headwaters and learned about the pipeline’s impacts on land and water from Indigenous leaders.
“Enbridge can’t be trusted in Michigan, and it can’t be trusted here in Minnesota either,” Tlaib said, referencing Enbridge Line 5 in Michigan. In 2010, Enbridge created a massive oil spill in the state.
Last fall, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer revoked a key easement for Line 5 that would have allowed the pipeline to cross the Straits of Mackinac. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now preparing an environmental impact statement of the underground tunnel proposed for the strait.
“President Biden,” said Pressly, “has the opportunity, and the responsibility in making good on his word to be the climate President, and must direct the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the permit for Line 3.”
These actions took place as Enbridge notified oil shippers on September 1 that it would, as Reuters reported, “offer capacity for 620,000 barrels per day on its Line 3 oil pipeline starting in October.”
The press briefing follows a letter sent to the U.S. government by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on August 31, requesting a response to allegations of human rights violations.
The letter states that the permitting process for Line 3 “has been conducted without adequate consultation with and without obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of the Anishinaabe Indigenous peoples, despite the serious harm such pipeline could allegedly cause.”
“We’ve seen the destruction of our rivers, we’ve had twenty-eight frac-outs which have burned our wild rice and our rivers, and we’ve had five billion gallons of water taken from our people in a time of the worst drought in the history of Minnesota.”
It alleges that Line 3 violates the treaties of the Anishinaabe people by reducing access to their lands and waterways, and to their traditional food, manoomin, or wild rice.
The letter to the U.N. office also states that Line 3 would “increase the risk of violence against Indigenous women, including sex trafficking and sexual abuse, due to the significant influx of workers and the establishment of camps composed of male workers.” Previous reporting found that sexual violence along the pipeline followed the warning of Indigenous women.
Lastly, the letter puts forward that “the intensified presence of law enforcement officials and private security companies would increase the risk of excessive use of force by members of the police and of these security companies against peaceful protestors.” An investigation by The Intercept found that law enforcement has shared information on protesters with Enbridge.
On September 3, Winona LaDuke of Honor the Earth, Tara Houska of the Giniw Collective, and Kate Finn of First Peoples Worldwide hosted a press call in response to the letter to the United Nations.
LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, said: “What we have seen over the past seven years is the Enbridge corporation, with the cooperation of the Canadian and now the U.S. government, succeeding in violating our rights consistently; not only to free prior and informed consent, but also our human rights in terms of sex trafficking, violations of our rights in terms of police brutality and injuries that have occurred as rubber bullets have been shot at our people by Minnesota law enforcement and paid for by Enbridge.”
The harm, she said, has already occurred: “We’ve seen the destruction of our rivers, we’ve had twenty-eight frac-outs which have burned our wild rice and our rivers, and we’ve had five billion gallons of water taken from our people in a time of the worst drought in the history of Minnesota.”
LaDuke added, “We are grateful that the United Nations is asking questions to the United States, and we believe that good nations should uphold their treaties and good countries should not wage war on Indigenous peoples.”