The Big Suck

Stop Tar Sands Oil ‘Straw’ Going Through Minnesota

Minnesota is one of the latest battlefields in the fight for clean water and against global warming.  Enbridge Energy Partners, a Canadian firm headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, is trying to increase the size of their dirty oil pipeline across northern Minnesota.  The Line 3 pipeline is to travel further, pumping larger amounts of  tar sands oil than their small existent line can handle, all for export.  Line 3 is one of 5 new pipeline ‘straws’ that were proposed for the Alberta tar sands in Canada.  So far, 4 of them have been stopped by climate activists, Canadian governmental bodies and U.S. courts.  Only the Enbridge 3 pipeline remains ‘alive’ at present. 

Front Line Camps are already in Northern Minnesota

Lazy political thinkers assume only Trump is bad for the earth.  They will be flummoxed by this situation if they are honest.  The Enbridge 3 Pipeline was just OK’d by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), though opposed by the Minnesota Commerce Department.   3 of the 5 members of the PUC were appointed Democrats, one a Republican and one some kind of independent.  If you think ‘regulatory capture’ is unique to Trump or Republicans or just in the last 2 federal years, think again.  The staff and commissioners of this state-level department ignored all testimony from experts opposing the pipeline and instead took everything that Enbridge said as ‘good coin.’ 

The PUC said it had a 'gun to their head' since the old pipeline was decaying.  Get rid of the gun by shutting down the old pipeline too.  This project will carry oil for the next 30 years.  The environment cannot handle something like that.

Just as Democratic and Republican politicians in northern Minnesota are salivating over the water-destroying sulfide mine proposals of various criminal mining concerns from other countries, so too do politicians in Minnesota sit on the fence or support Enbridge.  Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (The Liberal Party is a partial version of the Democrats in Canada) has strongly supported the Trans Mountain pipeline from the tar sands by buying it!  Basically, the Democratic Party majority doesn’t have a clue on how to stop global warming, as they are addicted to a ‘market’ or ‘all options’ approach.  Tar sands, fracking, deep water and Arctic drilling, solar, wind, ethanol, etc. – what is wrong with this picture as painted by Obama or Clinton?  Lame-duck Minnesota Governor Dayton is one of the few who is suspicious of this pipeline.  He calls himself ‘the Water Governor.’  We will see how suspicious or how pro-water…

This fight is crucial to the battle to stop global climate change.  The site of the pipeline crosses Ojibwe tribal land and the inevitable spills will wreck wild rice production in surrounding waters. This is covered by an 1855 Treaty, a treaty ignored by the PUC.  It will make the Alberta Tar sands more economically viable, giving it a constant large outlet for dirty oil.  The long dig path is close to two large tribal areas – Red Lake and White Earth – and to 2 large population centers – Duluth and the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area.  The over whelming majority of Minnesotans are against this line, just as they oppose sulfide mining in northern Minnesota.  But few listen to the people, as capitalist governments have been captured by corporate cash and logic.  The two main political parties are based on two different wings of capital which have different tactical outlooks, but both support a market approach to environmentalism - or no approach at all.  After all, this country is ALSO a petro-state.  It's not just Nigeria or Saudi Arabia or Kuwait or Russia...

You cannot negotiate with Mother Nature.

EEP Bond Deal Prospectus - Book Runners

Among financial firms recently issuing corporate bonds for Enbridge is Wells Fargo Securities, part of one of the most criminal banks in the U.S. and also located in Minnesota.  The support of Wall Street and Toronto’s financial firms is ESSENTIAL to the funding of these pipelines and corporations. They are the hidden actors behind the scenes.  Attached is the cover of the latest prospectus for their truly ‘junk bonds.’  Enbridge has told investors that they are confident Line 3 will be operational in ‘2H 2019’ – the second half of next year.  Firms like RBC Capital (located in Minneapolis) issue analyst recommendations.  Their analyst said to ‘hold’ these bonds, not sell them, so they are propping up Enbridge’s market value.   RBC is “Royal Bank of Canada” which claims to have a ‘Blue Water’ project.  Yet they fund various Alberta oil sands projects including Enbridge, which helps pollute the McKenzie River basin, one of the largest in North America.  By any other name, this is corporate ‘blue-washing.’ 

Most labor unions in Minnesota would oppose the Line 3 project, but not the construction unions and maybe not the Teamsters.  To win over the whole working class, the U.S. needs a guaranteed job economy to provide union jobs at scale as a part of a transition away from fossil fuels.  It will need to nationalize these carbon companies under workers’ control and slowly wind them down.  None of these measures are being talked about in polite company.

In fact, it is not just federal government agencies that have suffered from 'regulatory capture' by the industries they regulate.  Because of this decision by the Minnesota PUC and other decisions by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Department of Natural Resources on sulfide mines in northeast Minnesota, regulatory capture is also a state issue.  Not to mention the capture of politicians of both parties by the capitalists they are supposed to regulate.  The oil and mining interests in the state rule, slowly but surely.

U.S. government agencies have recently issued two reports indicating the dire prospects to the environment if global carbon production is not slowed or stopped.  The UN IPCC has issued another report that says the world has 12 years to act, as all efforts to date have not stopped the rise in carbon concentrations.  A collapse in global food production caused by warming oceans and desertification will lead to widespread starvation if nothing is done. and that is only one of the deadly effects.  Now is the time to act. 

Shut down the tar sands’ ‘straws.’

Ojibwe Nation leader and head of Honor the Earth, Winona LaDuke, discusses the proposed expansion of the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline across Minnesota, including indigenous land on “Democracy Now.”

https://www.democracynow.org/2018/12/7/winona_laduke_calls_for_indigenous_led

P.S. – Hemp growing has just been legalized in the U.S. in the next ‘Farm Bill,’ but the bill has not been signed by Trump.  Hemp is superior to cotton in many ways, using less water and chemicals, and easier to grow and harvest.  Corporate ‘Reefer madness’ is the only reason it has taken this long to legalize on a mass scale. As LaDuke pointed out, canvas is merely a reference to 'cannabis.' 

See prior reviews on this topic:  “Tar Sands,” “Collapse,” “Stirring Up the Bacon Eaters,” “Climate Emergency,” “Planning Green Growth,” “Sulfuric Acid & the Boundary Waters.” 

Red Frog

December 12, 2018