350 Wenatchee Climate Conversations NCW

First things first — if you haven’t signed the petition asking President Biden to stop the Line 3 pipeline, sign the petition today. If you’ve already signed it, ask your friends to join you!. We’re delivering this petition to the White House next week, alongside our partners in this fight — about one million water protectors have already put their names to paper, but we want to make as big a statement as possible, and time is short.

After 7 years of resistance from Indigenous communities and climate activists, Enbridge Energy announced last Friday that they are beginning to send oil through the pipeline. The completion of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline can still be stopped by the White House, but Enbridge is getting close to operational — the clock is ticking

We are already seeing environmental harm done by Line 3. Untreated wastewater and chemicals are seeping out from the land where the pipeline’s construction went underneath the Clearwater river. It was just recently discovered that back in January, Enbridge breached an aquifer in rural Minnesota — but rather than tell state regulators or environmental monitors about the breach, they just kept building.

There is also a human toll exacted against the water protectors putting their bodies on the line to prevent this pipeline. Tara Houska, who was arrested while trying to intervene and stop the drilling, wrote a stunning letter from jail:

I’m sitting in Pennington County jail covered in bruises, waiting to be arraigned. Rubber-bullet welts spread purple down my arms and back, courtesy of Minnesota police, who have reportedly billed nearly $2 million in security-related costs to a fund set up by Canadian pipeline giant Enbridge. Enbridge is here to expand tar sands oil through my people’s territory. They seek to build a pipeline with the emissions equivalent of 50 new coal-fired plants, slamming another nail into the coffin of climate doom.

The echoes of screaming, coughing, choking are in the buzz of my jail cell’s large fluorescent light. When my eyes close, I see blood pouring down the face of a young woman hit in the head by a so-called less-lethal munition, tracks of chemically-induced tears on cheeks, and a giant drill out of a sci-fi movie boring through a river behind a line of police. The sound of the drill is in my teeth, in my skull. The sound of the drill fills the air. Fills the world.

The letter is well worth reading in full.

This isn’t the end, though. The completion of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline can be stopped by the White House. In granting pipeline permits to Enbridge, President Biden’s predecessor waived any requirement of an Environmental Impact Statement — in other words, he declared that the federal government will approve the pipeline’s construction without considering the environmental harms it will cause. President Biden can and should demand a full audit, for the sake of our land and our health.

Starting next Monday, thousands of people will participate in civil disobedience at the White House to demand that President Biden choose a side: People vs. Fossil Fuels. On Tuesday, October 12th, we’ll deliver the final petition demanding a full Environmental Impact Statement. Please make the most of this time we have — sign this petition, and share with your friends as well:

Want to do more?

Join us on Twitter tonight at 8pm Eastern Time, where we will be engaging in a chat with partners in this fight. Follow @SeventhGen or #StopLine3Chat to be part of the conversation.

It’s not too late to stop the Line 3 pipeline, and anything we can do to slow this construction helps keep the window open for President Biden to stop the pipeline once and for all.

In solidarity,

The Stop Line 3 Team

P.O Box 63

Callaway

United States