Indigenous leaders fighting the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota have put out a call asking folks to come in support of their work on the frontlines trying to stop Enbridge’s construction of this tar sands project endangering the waterways, defiling the land, and contributing to the climate crisis.
This pipeline will transport for export 1 million barrels of tar sands a day—the equivalent of 50 new coal fired plants. In addition to destruction of Canadian boreal forests, it endangers Anishaabe and other tribal wetlands and rice fields, the headwaters of the Mississippi, and with 22 river crossings is at great risk for spills and leakages for which the company has a sordid and less-than-transparent history.
There is no local market for this pipeline and it comes at a time when we need to be transitioning to renewable, sustainable clean energy and decreasing carbon emissions, not increasing them! It is critical to delay construction to buy time for court challenges to be heard and to put pressure on the new administration to weigh in against this horrific project.
Given that investors are already starting to pull away from fossil fuel projects, the defeat of Line 3 could be a death toll for tar sand pipelines altogether!
In support of the water protectors’ call for support, XRPDX is organizing caravans to show up to the frontlines, hopefully by the second week in March. Water protector camps have been at various pipeline water crossing locations and have developed protocols that have prevented COVID infections for the past several months of action.
Since December, 44 water protectors have been arrested and the company is rapidly trying to push this project through before court challenges can take affect. (So rapidly, in fact, that they’re exposing their workers to both COVID-19 and fatal industrial accidents.)
This is a national effort and members of XRPDX are meeting regularly with other XR chapters across the country to organize around this, as well as reaching out to other environmental and Indigenous organizations.
We are also planning a local showing of Jan Haaken’s film Necessity to be used as a fundraiser for the water protectors.
Join the XR Action team weekly meetings to help us prepare a local fundraiser, educational events as well as COVID-safe pods ready to car caravan and be safe affinity groups for frontline actions or contact di1276@protonmail.com.
Our allies at Rising Tide have also compiled resources on how to follow and support frontline groups from afar:
