Death by a Thousand Cuts? The Enbridge Line 3 Oil Pipeline Project, Industrial Agriculture and the Need for Mutual Support

There are many obvious connections between fossil fuel pipelines and agriculture. Fossil fuels are used to power farm machinery and are used in the manufacturing of pesticides and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. And the climate changes caused by fossil fuel greenhouse gases are making it harder to farm by causing weather extremes like droughts, floods and excessive heat and allowing pests to expand their ranges. 

But I would like to address other connections which also point to the need for different communities that may not often interact to recognize and act together on fundamental issues underlying fossil fuels, industrial agriculture and  other parts of society that are common to all of us. The historical and largely white incrementalist environmental movement, including its agricultural manifestations, has failed to adequately protect the environment, let alone the rights and wellbeing of BIPOC communities.  Only an intersectional movement that embraces and supports leadership from BIPOC communities most affected, and in the service of fundamental political and democratic economic change, will successfully address these issues. 

As background, in northern Minnesota, the Canadian company Enbridge is building most of its U.S. section of a tar sands oil pipeline, approved by state regulators and greenlighted by the state’s democratic governor Tim Walz. This is despite its threat to some of the most unpolluted waters and wetlands in the country at the headwaters of the Mississippi River, and its abrogation of Native American treaty rights. Louise Erdrich, acclaimed author, Minnesota resident, and member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa noted ways tar sands oil development is harming our land, water, climate and Indigenous rights and called Line 3 a “breathtaking betrayal”.  The source of this oil, in Alberta Canada, has been called the most destructive in the world and its extraction is similarly steamrolling First Nation opposition in Canada. The toxic tailing ponds alone could fill more than 500,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. In addition, the pipeline doubles the current capacity of the existing aging pipeline and would produce the equivalent carbon dioxide of about 50 coal fired power plants. It takes a new route that goes through hundreds of streams and wetlands, including crossing the Mississippi River twice at its headwaters.

Enbridge has a dismal history of damaging leaks. An Enbridge leak into a tributary of the Kalamazoo River in Michigan in 2010 released about a million gallons of the particularly nasty tar sands oil. It caused huge damage that had not been entirely remediated years later and cost at least $1.2 billion and years of lost river use. Because it is heavy and sinks, it is particularly hard to remediate. In Minnesota, Enbridge pipelines have had  numerous leaks over the past 30 years including one of 1.7 million gallons. These are the largest inland oil leaks in U.S. history. Despite this, our current laws or regulatory agencies have been grossly inadequate in ignoring this damning history. During drilling under streams and rivers there have already been numerous leaks during Line 3 construction, called frac outs, with potentially toxic drilling fluid contaminating the water.  

The new pipeline would also expand and lock in production of the dirtiest oil in the world, possibly for decades, during which time we must eliminate fossil fuel use. The new IPCC report, massive wildfires, huge storms, heat domes and droughts all point to the urgency of ending the use of fossil fuels and the insanity of building Line 3. And yet the Minnesota government and the Biden Administration is letting this pipeline proceed, the latter despite laudably stopping the Keystone XL pipeline and although Enbridge Line 3 would be almost as large. Walz’s own Department of Commerce opposed the pipeline because it did not meet regulatory requirements for economic benefits for the State or long-term demand for the oil. Recently the International Energy Agency research showed that a path to zero human carbon emissions, could likely only be achieved by ceasing all new fossil fuel project development and that oil demand growth would end over the coming decade.   

More recently, in the midst of a extreme drought forcing water use restrictions on citizens, Enbridge asked for a 10-fold increase in its permitted “dewatering,”—from the previous 500 million to 5 billion gallons. Without requiring any significant new data, and based on assumptions, the State’s feckless Department of Natural Resources approved the new allocation. Under pressure from scientists laying out how this may harm the environment and violate agency protocols and treaty rights (scroll to July 20, 9:02 AM), the DNR pulled that back a bit by restricting withdrawal from some waterways but leaving in place the overall increased allocation. 

With Line 3, there is also a more direct connection with food. The pipeline route goes through historic treaty lands and violates treaty rights. These lands contain some of the most important wild rice, manoomin in Anishinaabemowin, areas in the world. Manoomin is an amazing plant that grows in the shallows of northern lakes in very clean water. It is a central part of Ojibwe/Anishinaabe people’s way of life. But manoomin is very susceptible to pollution or changing water levels, and oil leaks could be catastrophic. It is also very vulnerable to the climate change that Line 3 would accelerate.

Despite rhetoric from the governor and national political leaders about respecting Indigenous rights, native water protectors have mostly been ignored at the State and Federal levels and arrested along with their allies when asserting their rights. Instead of putting a hold on the pipeline during lawsuits challenging its legality,  governments have given it a greenlight. And Enbridge has financially supported local law enforcement through an escrow account to deter peaceful protestors. They have routinely blockaded public land and roads or land belonging to water protectors. Most recently police action has resulted in the use of rubber bullets and tear gas and denying medication to arrested water protectors.