How screwed up is a species that allows the destruction of forests and water bodies for the creation of a tar sands pipeline? So screwed up they’ll also allow the destruction of the Boundary Waters for a nickel or copper mine? And so addicted to oil they will allow a CO2 pipeline, full of gas that can kill in minutes, to be built… only so ‘enhanced oil recovery’ can continue… thus further poisoning the atmosphere with carbon?
All this with no accountability for cleaning up our messes?
Interior’s analysis found there are more than 130,000 documented orphaned wells in the United States — far more than the 56,600 tallied in a report by the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission in 2019. Many more wells exist that were drilled before regulators began requiring documentation in the mid-1900s.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there are more than 3 million total abandoned oil and gas wells. About 2 million of those are estimated to be very old and never properly plugged. The agency believes such wells are responsible for most of the methane emitted from abandoned wells.
When will enough be enough? When we obliterate the very sources of life itself? Clean land, air, and water? When the last fish has been eaten? The last tree culled?
This is how screwed up: Around the world, humans are struggling to survive raging wild fires, flooding, tornados, ice storms… and all these in unexpected places and/ot during atypical times.. Yet, as our systems are failing, we continue… business as usual.
But there is a better way.
The aquifer breach Enbridge created almost a year ago now, is a calamity that should never have happened. Had there been proper oversight by the state agencies, the many problems created in our lands during the building of Enbridge’s new Line 3 might never have occurred. (Enbridge named this new pipeline “Line 93”.)
If agencies had bothered listening to those of us warning of the dangers, especially of believing Enbridge lies, perhaps they would have denied this project and our trees would still be standing.
Or, if the DNR hadn’t given Enbridge the benefit of the doubt, trusted them to be forthcoming, trusted their “independent” environmental monitors (almost half of whom are previous Enbridge employees!?!?!) to be unbiased observers. If they’d visited the work sites more or even simply bothered to READ the reports on the project, we might have avoided these issues? Had they bothered to look at this land, and realize this is no place for a tar sands pipeline from the beginning, we would not have drilling mud embedded at so many rivers across Minnesota and ww could have avoided this year of dewatering at this aquifer breach in Clearwater County. So many failures of the DNR.
Perhaps their mission should have been a red flag? With its focus on “commercial use” of our land, air, and waters, perhaps they for the part that says, “in a way that creates a sustainable quality of life”? As we hear often, and seems more evident every day, it’s all about the Benjamins?
The mission of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is to work with Minnesotans to conserve and manage the state’s natural resources, to provide outdoor recreation opportunities, and to provide for commercial uses of natural resources in a way that creates a sustainable quality of life.
[This soooo reminds me of that question I asked DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen back in 2019 around what her department does besides simply keep an account of who is buying all our natural resources.]
As the DNR protocols to evaluate projects showed a failure to fact check the inputs by Enbridge, which might have saved so much, had it been done. DNR has not been cautious. They have seemingly colluded with Enbridge to allow continued construction… even when it was discovered Enbridge had completely violated their construction permit. And failed to report it for months!
So what can they do now? The DNR can come clean on why they allowed such egregious violations to go without repercussions to the applicant. They can open their processes to public scrutiny and engage with Native and scientific voices to assure our natural resources are protected, not just sold off to the most readily available bidders.
It’s time. If ever there was a time for action, it is now. As we are observing the exponential changes in weather, climate, and risks… all of which mean more losses and more costs with a business as usual approach.
Let’s change the systems that currently decide our future. The lawsuit filed by Mark Toso against the MPCA gives hope that some from our Agencies are courageous enough to challenge the current culture.
Let’s hold them accountable and assure this kind of atrocity NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.
Kate Kahlert Supervising Attorney Minnesota Public Utilities Commission 121 7th Place E, Suite 350 St. Paul, Minnesota 55101-2147
RE: Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to Amend Rules Governing Certificates of Need and Site Permits for Large Electric Power Plans and High Voltage Transmission Line, and Notice Plan Filing Requirements
Dear Ms. Kahlert,
While I spoke at the ALJ Hearing, I am submitting my comments with additional concerns I witnessed during the Hearing. The irony of this Hearing being a microcosm of the failures we’ve experienced as “the public” with the PUC was not lost on me. And I am hopeful, after reading this, it will not be lost on you.
As a wheelchair user, I would hope that Judge Kimberly Middendorf would be better suited than most to understand the limitations that our systems create for some, and not others. Our systems are primarily designed for those who are white, housed, educated, and male… not those who are blind, deaf, or without good access to food, mobility, or medical care. Surely she sees more clearly than most, the changes happening? With more access being available today for those, not only in wheelchairs, but also those with other conditions of limitation in this system as it exists? Though injustice continues to abound.
What we need now is a focus on allowing those who are impacted to be able to speak to the things impacting them, which has been lacking for a plethora of reasons, notably, poor communications and practices by our State Agencies and Commissions, and a focused effort, it seems, on not including the voices of citizens.
Just as the State is providing more access to those who’ve been ignored in our day-to-day lives, we Climate Justice Advocates are seeking equal participation in the processes and policy-making as that given to Applicants and others, who find a much friendlier welcome by not only the Public Utilities Committee, but State Agencies across the board.
How many are surprised by the horrific results we’re seeing with water quality degradation, land-use favoring white and privileged places, and an inability to be prepared for the weather chaos – a result of the changes we’re making, often and usually, with regard to energy production?
In the ALJ Hearing, there were three objectives: • Does PUC have legal authority? • Has PUC fulfilled all relevant legal and procedural requirements? • Has NEED FOR and REASONABLENESS been assured?
I’d answer that they have usurped their legal authority by not including voices they are required to hear, namely the voices from the Tribes of Minnesota. Perhaps the laws are written for them to proceed in all other veins, but this one, they cannot pretend they have heeded legally. And with regard to Need, we might consider the health of the planet as a Reasonable thing to protect? You know, since our very lives depend upon it? Just a thought…
During the ALJ Hearing, Susan Gretz noted, “We had many commenters express concern about the rules not addressing Climate Change, Greenhouse gasses, and environmental justice. The Briefing Papers recommend to the Commissioners, and again, they are the decision-makers, that the rules explicitly require consideration of these factors in several different places. So that is Staff’s recommendation to the Commission.”
She continued, “We also received many comments that the rules do not properly reflect tribal sovereignty and the need to consult with Tribes on these projects. Staff is also recommending in the briefing papers that the Commission be required to maintain a separate list of the eleven federally recognized Tribes … the purpose of this list is to provide notice of applications and to require the Commission to engage with Tribal governments in accordance with its Tribal Engagement and Consultation Policy.”
I’d ask: If the Commissioners haven’t adhered to date… and they have been asked to do so, including in their own policies, then WHY SHOULD WE BELIEVE they will do it if asked again? If having a policy that requires it allows the Commission to IGNORE SAID POLICY, then why should the public have any trust that this quasi-judicial body will be ADHERING to any NEW policy moving forward?
I’d further ask if this is something the Commission is being advised to do NEXT TIME??? Or are they being asked to revisit this decision itself? Are they just going to run with their near decade of work on this and pretend to include some indication of where they felt they DID engage with the Tribes and simply MOVE FORWARD? Or will the process be STOPPED and RE-DONE to INCLUDE the Tribal voice – as required by law and policy?
I ask because this is something we’ve seen over and over in the Line 3 opposition. We ask for consideration and the MPCA, DNR, USACE all say some form of: ‘Ah, Thanks for letting us know you’re interested! Next Time We WILL Consult with you! Pinky Promise!!’
WHY SHOULD WE TRUST THAT ANYTHING WE SAY WILL HAVE ANY INFLUENCE?
Why should we trust that we will be given even an appearance of consideration?
Yet, still, I write to you today. Because what else can I do?
We’d like to see changes made with public engagement in our civic processes, a situation which has, via my experience in Minnesota, proven to be DIFFICULT, even in the best of circumstances.
Your own presentation of the Rulemaking Advisory Committee – a point of contention mentioned in many of the public comments shared at the December 6th Hearing – shows no Tribal representation and including mostly monied orgs and those hoping to profit from said rule changes:
Look who is MISSING on the Public Utilities Commission Rulemaking Advisory Committee… and who is included.
WHERE IS THE PUBLIC??? Where are Minnesota SCIENTISTS?
And most especially, where are the Tribes whose land upon which Minnesota was founded? They were Excluded from Participation. Never even notified?
The shame of our injustice toward Anishinaabeg continues to present day.
And this lack of public engagement was itself the focus on an audit process, for which we are still awaiting outcomes to provide remedy. I ask again: Is there any real interest in engaging us?
Or is this all simply a smokescreen to pretend our voices matter? Our only option remaining… to MAKE you SLOW DOWN and LISTEN by requesting a public hearing when the PUC wanted to rush these rules through without it? As my good friend from Fond du Lac keeps asking me, “How many times do we have to say ‘No’, huh?”
Bret Eknes, whose presentation was so garbled as to be unintelligible was again an example of how unimportant it appears to be to the PUC for the public to be informed, even during the actual process designed to bring better understanding, the ALJ Hearing.
Utter frustration filled me as I listened to this poorly done response to public concerns. An addition of 150+ pages of information… less than ONE BUSINESS DAY prior to this hearing??? We get a LARGE NEW ADDITION of data from Staff for consideration? {Note: Clearly stating in one instance that this information is “illustrative and not binding.” Well, of course! The PUC can do as it wishes, this seems to further indicate.}
Where were these recommendations during the development process? Why ONLY after dozens and dozens of citizens let the PUC know we’re watching… do we get any response? And perhaps this is just lip service, as this body seems want to do as it wishes… and continues to push the public from their processes, and seemingly from their consideration?
Save Matt perhaps, as one public speaker – Jaci, speaking for many of us – commented on Commissioner Schuerger’s courage to stand for the right decision on the Enbridge Line 3 project – the focus of my comments as it’s been the focus of my life for the last half dozen years. As is obvious in the graph below, Schuerger has been proven right, it seems, as the throughput on the Enbridge lines is on the decline as CJ Advocates suggested it would be. Throughput is not surpassing the capacity Enbridge had with OLD Line 3 in service… when all our forests and wetlands were intact across Northern Minnesota.
FERC Reported Data Q3-2021
So while I hadn’t planned to give comment, as I watched the time remaining in the hearing and knew we must give as much reason for our requests to STOP this rule change, ensure the voice of the Tribes and citizens was heard, and that the urgent factors of our rapidly changing world incorporated, I simply couldn’t NOT give testimony. This is what I shared:
Thank you for providing this venue for participation of the public voice in our state process. I recognize many of the voices speaking today as fellows who have struggled to get State Agencies to hear us, most especially the PUC, which for me has been over the last six years. The concern with the PUC’s seeming unwillingness historically to allow the public to participate in its decision-making was evident throughout the Line 3 hearings and the resulting OLA audit of their public engagement process as mentioned by others.
We all know that Applicants are going to present their projects in the best light and only provide as much information as demanded from them. In the case of the PUC on Line 3, we watched as Enbridge provided a SUPPLY forecast and the PUC inaccurately allowed that to meet their requirement to give Minnesota a DEMAND forecast for their product. As such, we now see a completed tar sands pipeline while we see no real increase in their use of the mainline system for more throughput than was already possible with the current system. So how many trees did Minnesota lose, how many more wetlands were degraded by the PUC’s illegal allowance of this project?
What we see now on the project corridor is a birthing of all the many concerns noted by the Tribes, Environmental Scientists, and Citizen Advocates like me. We now see Enbridge reducing the lifetime for their mainline system to a 2040 end date, notwithstanding their newest line – the Relocated and Expanded Line 3, which they note will have a 30-year lifetime.
So there might be consideration in the rule changes that eventually arise from this process to include some actions to hold Applicants accountable for their inaccurately or incompletely presented project details. This could give Minnesota more control over Applicants who are found to not have studied the environment in which they are looking to build… to a degree that would protect Minnesotans. In addition, it could include mitigation/amendments that might be considered as we face faster and faster changes to our climate with more and more extreme weather.
The comment by Kevin Pranis of LIUNA noted issues with “getting steel in the ground”. Yet, this is exactly the problem we had on the Line 3 project – where steel was pounded into the ground in violation of their construction permit, breaching an aquifer that continues to spill water into the environment threatening the biodiversity and the fen in Clearbrook.
Favoring the Applicant and their narrative IS NOT PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT. We know from the experience with Enbridge and the PUC that the Applicant was consistently, and to the detriment of the state, given priority consideration with few challenges made to the Applicant regarding the very real concerns put forward by both the Tribes and Environmental Justice Advocates.
We now see in our environment with both the frac-outs into the Mississippi River at BOTH crossings as well as the aquifer breach in Clearbrook. It is clear that the Tribal Representatives, Scientists and Environmental Advocates were right about the risks to our land, air and water, yet we were not heeded by the PUC, as documented in the OLA report of their org and public engagement.
I’d ask for a TRUE assessment of the climate impacts and with a full and early inclusion of the Native Peoples of this land as their voices are critical to protecting our land, air and water. Thank you for your consideration.
After I spoke and comments were getting close to closing, my friend from Fond du Lac was working to be heard. We were grateful that the PUC allowed her comment. However, as she was known to be the last comment, and we’d heard throughout the hearing of the Native voice going unheeded being against the rule of law (Article VI of the Constitution) and Treaty obligations, and we had TWO HOURS REMAINING for the Hearing… still we listened to her be rushed from the stage so the hearing could end early.
Again I ask, does our shame know no bounds?
The new Netlfix movie, Don’t Look Up speaks to the inability of humanity to heed the voice of truth… our inability to face our own demise. Perhaps the PUC is simply a microcosm of what we’re seeing in the larger world. It would be nice to see a turning point here in Minnesota, as we stop the madness inflicted upon us by the corporate and monied interests and instead listen to the planet on which we depend… for all. We’re just about to run out of hopium that the powers that be will make decisions that favor humankind over dollars, the safety of our home over a few pieces of gold.
Please prove me wrong.
Please give hope that we will see a re-do of these rules, incorporating the voices that spoke out during the ALJ Hearing.
Please give reason for us to maintain expectation that our Commissions and Agencies are beginning to comprehend the need to LISTEN to the PEOPLE, incorporate the voices and minds of Minnesotans who care, and find a way forward that works for all, not just Applicants and those hoping to profit financially.
Thank you for your consideration.
Jami Gaither
1/3/22 Update:
I had written to Kate Kahlert hoping to see where we could view all the public comments, and mostly to assure my comments were visible as a friend recently had her comments kept hidden from the public by an agency… Here’s Kate’s response.
Hi Jami, thank you for you reaching out. The Commission to decided to withdraw the proposed rule and to not go forward with the proposed rule changes. As a result, there are no open comment periods. If you want to see comments in the record, you can view them in the Commission’s electronic filing system using this link: https://www.edockets.state.mn.us/EFiling/edockets/searchDocuments.do?method=showeDocketsSearch&showEdocket=true I hope this is helpful, but please let me know if you need anything else. Thank you, Kate
1/3/22 Response on seeking to view public comments on this Rule Change Proposal (Link modified)
So, did we win? The PUC doesn’t say WHY they withdrew their proposal… though I’m guessing it’s because…
WE WERE WATCHING AND WE SPOKE UP!!
Miigwech.
Doesn’t say why… but they did pull them. Apparently before I sent my comments, though I got no notice?
1/4/22 Update: This from a friend:
In a 5-0 decision they voted to withdraw the rule completely and indicated that they do not intend to call for a rulemaking to fix the identified issues that the rulemaking was meant to correct (including the fact that the rules have been inconsistent with state statute since at least 2005) nor address any of the issues the commenters raised. This was in line with what PUC staff recommended in their briefing papers.
November is usually a time for cards of Thanks though not as many went out this year as I hoped as there are SO MANY for whom I am thankful this year. Good friends, comrades in the work to protect Mother Earth (nimaamaa aki), and so many beings around us that bring joy and beauty to our everyday.
Though my favorites are the Chickadees (gijigijigaaneshiinhyag) who will land in one’s hand to grab a sunflower seed – always a thrill.
The snow (goon) has been present for a while now, and we got another 13″+ the first weekend of December.
Welcome to Winter at the HARN!
It’s that time of year when all I want to do is curl up with a book and read. And we are reading… Unstuck in Time by Gregory Sumner. [Find a subject you feel deeply about and you want others to know about and write about it. Great Idea, Greg!] Another Hoosier out there doing great stuff, Greg’s book walks us through all Kurt’s works chronologically as he gives us great insight to the writer, with whom we have found great resonance. [The book is not connected to the movie Unstuck in Time, though I’m excited to see what that reveals as well.]
I will say I’m LOVING this book and how it helps me better understand Kurt and his books, including how they connect to his personal life and the current events and previous events of US and World History. There is much to learn from this child soldier turned anthropology student turned writer. Really looking forward to reading Breakfast of Champions next… unless we decide to read all his works in order… a big challenge, though one I’m considering. Perhaps when I read the next chapter, that will be the book I want to read next. Hocus Pocus is coming up… and Bluebeard too.
Together Dan & I are reading Howard Zinn’s Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian. It’s really encouraging and enlightening, though very real… and thus sad at how much remains the same as did when he wrote this in 1993 book. This is perhaps one of the best things I’ve ever read:
Honest Transparency in a Professor… refreshing.
Hoping you all have a lovely end to 2021 and here’s to our 2022 being a time for reconciliation, compassion, and finding our way forward in a way that allows our children to also have a chance at living their lives… as we older folks have been allowed. [I fear us oldsters give far too little consideration of how we can do this… as things continue to look troublesome near term… not to mention the horrors that appear on the horizon.]
And for those reading all the words… I’m learning Ojibwe (Ojibwemowin)! [Yes, I am REALLY EXCITED about it.] I’m finding it intriguing, fun, and edifying. Get in touch if you want to practice speaking!
I’m not saying vaccines are 100% ineffective, I’m simply saying they aren’t 100% safe (at least not as we’re administering them here in the US)… and that they are not our only way forward.
I’m really saying, “It Didn’t Have To Be This Way.” [More on this at the bottom.]
While many would agree with me in saying the vaccines are not 100% effective, it seems that few will agree the vaccines are unsafe. But one thing most of them can agree on is this: Ivermectin Doesn’t Work and Is UNSAFE!
The question is… Why? And maybe more importantly, WHY is there so much disagreement about these ideas. And most importantly perhaps, WHY can we not DISCUSS these matters freely and without such vitriol?
I have really been heartbroken by those who have chosen to attack me for speaking my truth as I share what I feel are valid concerns that require some consideration.
Some simply want to label me “Anti-vaxxer”… and thus conveniently put me into a category of “Stupid” or “Trumpster” as they stand in righteous beliefs regarding their vaccines… and my lack of care.
I’ve been especially frightened by the harsh lashing out from those who have called me a friend.
If I cannot even talk openly with friendly relations about these ideas, then how on earth are we to find truth among the masses?
Nuance is hard for most of us and even harder as truth is becoming more difficult to determine.
All I can say is that I’m working as hard as anyone to understand the world. And I’m listening to what I’m learning and working to put all the pieces together.
Unfortunately, the more I work, the harder it is to find hope that we’re gonna find our way through all this mess.
The harder it is to know what is true, who I can trust, and what I ought do.
I told Dan this past week, if the Abortion Ban and Vaccine Mandates both manage to find a way forward and into our near-term future, then I suspect we’ll be at war by my birthday, just a few months hence. As I discussed with a friend this morning, there are legal ideas… and then there are ethics and logic. It’s seeming more often each day that the legal does not always rest well on logical, scientific, or moral ground.
I’m also concerned that these times are looking quite similar to those that preceded both WWI and WWII. We have economic uncertainty, communication breakdowns, global scapegoating, and system failures that do not bode well for our future being bright. And we wonder why our children are shooting each other in schools and overdosing on opioids? We can look at ourselves for these answers.
Yet, there doesn’t seem much impetus to find that middle ground in logic and ethics. Instead, greed seems the biggest motivator in the Vaccine/Covid Treatment game.
Greed motivates the vaccine manufacturers to not share their recipes.
Greed incents a focus on profits rather than outcomes for people.
Greed motivates Merck to downplay it’s own (VERY CHEAP) drug, Ivermectin, and its ability to bring relief from Covid, and instead we find them hawking another unknown off-the-shelf-for-quick-manufacture concoction as a ‘Covid Pill Cure’. All for only $700 a pop, eh? [Meanwhile, Ivermection costs less than a Big Mac. And actually does something. (I hear the new drug is not being found as effective as first touted on announcement, perhaps why it barely passed EUA approval? Time will tell.]
Greed assures the privileged are first (and often the only places) on the list for vaccine distribution.
Greed assures there are no ‘approved’ treatments (hence the ability to continue with EUAs that allow Big Pharma to rack up millions).
Yet the data from India, Japan, and Chiappas show that Ivermectin does work?
Last half 2021 Cases as of 12-5-21. Mexico, India, and Japan appear to be winning!
And the chatter about Ivermectin being a “horse-dewormer” and/or “dangerous” has been shown to be politically driven misinformation for this Nobel Prize Winning drug. [FFS, even the correction opener on this piece is an embarrassing attempt at misguiding the public – though with our poor education system, it has seemingly worked… as I have family members in medicine who poo-poo Ivermectin as HORRIBLY UNSAFE! (I would welcome anyone who has links to articles that DON’T mention Ivermectin… without disparaging it as ‘unhelpful’ for Covid.)]
Perhaps the best written summary can be found in the below quoted article*:
This was not something many people thought possible. But while the world was living the nightmare of the COVID-19 pandemic like a Michael Crichton sci-fi horror production where the planet is facing a plague apocalypse, millions die, and doctors can do nothing as brilliant pharmaceutical scientists race to develop vaccines to save the globe in the final scene, Paul Marik had a different movie in his head. He was startled and appalled that all the national and international public health agencies recommended that the most well-trained, well-equipped doctors in history stand down and wait on big pharma’s lab scientists while the worst pandemic in a century devastated the world. “It’s therapeutic nihilism to say that doctors can do nothing,” Marik said. “Supportive care is no care at all.”
What Marik did was assemble four of his closest friends, who also happen to be four of the top academic critical care doctors in the world. He challenged them to join him in an expert panel to continually review the literature while treating their COVID-19 patients and developing treatment protocols—lowcost generic therapies that countless black and brown and poor people all over the world would need, he saw from the beginning, or face a coming catastrophe without treatments or vaccines. …
ICUs were getting hammered by the new respiratory plague all around the world, but Marik had assembled a group of intensivists with nearly 2,000 peer-reviewed papers and books and over a century of bedside experience in treating multi-organ failure and severe pneumonia-type diseases. If anyone could arrest the coronavirus in a living patient, they could.
And they DID! The MATH+ and I-MASK protocols have saved many. Though the safety of Ivermectin is hard to argue against, we see that many have. And we continue to see no consideration of it by our prescribed Doctor, as he notes the organization’s protocols do not allow Ivermectin prescriptions to be written for Covid treatment, I am left to no other conclusion than this may well be a de-population plan.
We are told here in America that, until you have COVID symptoms that warrant hospitalization, there is no treatment for you. We are not given any guidance for boosting our own immune systems and are even discouraged from taking Vitamin D, or anything… save a jab of vaccine, to help ourselves. Meanwhile, our mortality for 2021 is HIGHER than that of 2020. Even with those highly touted EUA jabs in place? Hmmm.
Sadly, as I read the words of Dr. Pierre Kory, I feel the same of my own doctor, who continues to refuse to consider any medical information I present:
Kory never tires of reminding critics that the modern Hippocratic Oath, the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki, makes it abundantly clear that all medical research is secondary to the doctor’s clinical judgement in the moment, whether the patient is dying of COVID-19 or giving birth. The doctor is morally compelled to use their best clinical judgement and the “best available evidence” in that instant, not tomorrow or next year when more data is published. As the WMA puts it: “The health of my patient will be my first consideration.” Clearly the medical establishment is now routinely violating that ancient oath, Kory says, and as a result he “feels estranged from most, but not all, of my colleagues.” …
In the new world of medicine, the COVID world, he says, “Only big randomized controlled trials by big pharma/big academic medical centers are accepted by big journals, while others are rejected,” while only studies in big journals are accepted by big public health agencies for drug recommendations, and only drugs recommended by big public health agencies “escape media/social media censorship.” “This leaves you with a system where the only thing that’s considered to have sufficient evidence or proven efficacy is essentially a big new pharmaceutical drug,” he adds. “If it doesn’t come from the mountaintop, it doesn’t exist,” Kory says. “The people on the ground, we cannot do any more science that’s considered credible. We’re discredited as controversial and as promoting unproven therapies and our Facebook groups are shut down, Twitter accounts are locked, YouTube videos are removed and demonetized. It’s really almost totalitarian what’s happening when we’re just well-meaning scientists trying to do the right thing by our patients.”
Perhaps this censorship is the true problem? Again, this goes back to the beginning where I ask:
Can we not OPENLY DISCUSS the facts and come to the TRUTH?
It seems in today’s regulatory-captured capitalism, we may be SOL for that plan.
Good luck to you all in finding your way.
I’d ask that you consider taking a moment after hearing something you find a bit hard to swallow – perhaps especially from those for whom you hold any love – to ask yourself, “What if they aren’t all wrong?”
Perhaps, if I have not convinced you then a couple last stories from Capuzzo’s piece will inspire?
Dr. Manny Espinoza was dying of COVID-19 in his Texas hospital when his wife, Dr. Erica Espinoza, asked the doctors to try Ivermectin as a last resort, and was refused. Erica hired a life-flight helicopter to take Manny to the Houston hospital of FLCCC co-founder Joseph Varon for the cheap little pill that in four days had her husband sitting up smiling and telling their children about the “miracle” that saved his life. “We see this every day,” Dr. Varon says. “They say it’s a miracle, I say it’s the science, but it’s the truth.” In Atlanta, Georgia, eighty-four-year-old Lou Gossett Jr., the Oscar-winning black star of An Officer and a Gentleman, gravely ill with COVID-19, checked out of a hospital and was three days from his lungs failing, doctors said, when his son connected him with an FLCCC doctor in Florida who gave him Ivermectin. Gossett quickly recovered and made a very short film for the FLCCC doctors that ends: “I’m very grateful to all of you for literally saving my life.” In Cushing, Oklahoma (pop. 7,826), Dr. Randy Grellner saw Kory’s testimony and started giving his patients Ivermectin, which he’d used safely for years for parasites, for COVID-19 because he was “tired of the heartache…tired of the misery…I’ve seen enough death and despair.” In a few weeks the overwhelmed clinic dropped from twenty-five new COVID-19 cases a day to two. “The first thing that surprised me was how fast was the recovery in seventy-five and eight-five-year-old people,” Dr. Grellner said. “I know there’s controversy. I have no political motivation. I don’t have any desire except to put husbands and wives back together. If you’re getting problems from an organization that you work for that says you can’t use it, I would question that organization. If we’re not doing what is best for the patient, then we need to find another occupation.”
…[And what about Judy, with whom all this began?] She was quite amazed to learn from her children that while she was lying unconscious and near death with COVID-19 she became a front-page story in The Buffalo News and a Joan of Arc figure in a new revolution, the grandmother who won the first legal fight in the battle of Ivermectin. It is an unprecedented civil rights uprising of doctors, nurses, scientists, Nobel-Prize winning biologists, billionaire health philanthropists, civil rights activists, and thousands of ordinary people across Europe, Asia, South America, Africa, Canada, and the United States fighting a global, big-data-driven medical establishment. They’re fighting for the lost little things, the little data—the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship, the survival of the Hippocratic Oath, and the most important of civil rights, the right to life.
if you want some info on Omicron, I recommend Dr. John Campbell, who says things are looking good. Still… mask up to protect others? Or is that no longer a thing?
And here’s a long presentation from Heather and Bret on the details, the arguments, and – at about halfway through – information on many of the alternatives.
As I noted above… It didn’t have to be this way. 😞
At 1:22:00, I’m with Heather on her “my doctor” comment. More 😞…
Update later in the day of publish:
this latest from Darkhorse Podcast is truly horrifying. Though timely.
Since we don’t really celebrate many typical holidays here at the HARN, last Thursday we decided to head up to the Enbridge Terminal Aquifer Breach in Clearbrook. Here’s what we found:
I’m wondering if you can answer some of my questions regarding the continued concerns we have along the Enbridge Corridor.
While I’ve been reaching out to the MPCA’s reported Tribal Liaison, I’ve had no response.
As an abutter to the project, who’s been working with my friends, including many Native women leaders, for years now… to stop this project through Indian country, I was hopeful that my that my questions would matter to the MPCA and would get response.
Perhaps you can tell me what, if anything, is being done to address the frac-out conditions that appear to be still rising in the Mississippi Headwaters River Valley here? The beavers have noted it and are working to mitigate.
11-10-21 Photo of Mizi-Ziibi with Miskwaabiimizh from Amik (Mississippi River with Red Willow from Beaver)
They, Amikwag, seem the only ones doing anything about our environmental concerns along Line 3, or Line 93, as Enbridge had dubbed their new project, as is evidence by the Red Willow (Miskwaabiimizh) being placed in the flow of Misi-ziibi just downstream of the pipeline crossing.
Let me know if you have any answers regarding the ongoing disturbances to our flora and fauna along this project, which continues to gain attention… especially as Enbridge continues to be ever present in our neighborhoods up here in Clearwater County.
Just yesterday we saw a large Precision Pipeline semi trundling past the house mid-afternoon.
Maybe you can tell me what is happening in the forests and wetlands near my home?
Thanks for your consideration. ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
While prior to construction the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources was given less attention than the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (as the agency responsible for the 401 Clean Water Permit), it seems the DNR and MPCA have now switched places with the DNR getting most of the attention and the MPCA getting little.
Not that paying attention to the DNR construction permits would have made a difference… because Enbridge willfully violated those permits in their actions that burst open the Aquifer at the Clearbrook terminal.
But the lack of oversight was clear from both Agencies.
Both Agencies failed to stop this project when, by all rights, they should have.
Problem is… no Minnesota State Agency appears to have wanted to stop the Project.
The story most telling of their unwillingness to stop the Project goes way back to February 5th of last year, almost 2 years ago now.
A group of Minnesota scientists – including retirees from both MDNR & MPCA as well as Healthcare Professionals for Healthy Climate (HP4HC) and Science for the People – Twin Cities (SftP), joined Indigenous Leaders from RISE Coalition and Honor the Earth, along with state non-profit groups (Sierra Club & MN350), along with legal and spiritual representation, to FINALLY meet with MPCA staff to discuss how they could work to deny the 401 permit for the tar sands pipeline project – opposed by all these groups.
The arrival at the MPCA that morning was different from other times we’d visited the MPCA for meetings. While many of the representatives had traveled hours from Northern Minnesota, hoping to, as usual, gather in the cafeteria for refreshment and review prior to our meeting, the desk staff refused us entry. The first members of our group were two young white men, one representing MN350 and one Honor the Earth. Others of us – still on the road – were contacted for help and we reached out to MPCA staff to determine what the problem might be. On arrival of my caravan, which included retired MPCA staff, two citizens who live along the Enbridge route, and a pastor (all white), and following some additional discussion, we were eventually led back to the cafeteria by an MPCA staffer.
To show the level of concern and fear of Minnesota Citizens in our Agencies, then-Commissioner Laura Bishop came personally to the cafeteria to explain, “they thought you might be protesters.”
She apologized and left us to our lunch. It was only in hindsight that we’d realize why they may have been so touchy… as they were readying a weapon that aimed to derail the public… and it was just about to launch.
On arrival to the MPCA conference room, we were welcomed and seated. And then came the moment of truth for me in this campaign, the moment that I realized how FUCKED we were when it came to the MPCA.
Commissioner Bishop came into the room as the meeting began and gleefully announced that, AS WE SPOKE [Oh, boy!], the MPCA had just issued a memo noting…
wait for it….
The MPCA had Issued a Draft APPROVAL for Enbridge’s draft 401 permit!
All I could think, as this bombshell exploded was: Why. THE. FUCK. Are WE even HERE? If the decision had already been made by the Agency?
Just another in the short list of “let’s pretend we’re gonna listen to the Water Protectors” meetings that were never intended to truly hear us. Instead, we were left to work on how to make the public hearings as ROBUST for Public Comment as possible. [Though it would later become clear, that testimony would also be largely ignored by the MPCA.]
Peter Tester, who became Commissioner temporarily when Laura resigned the following summer (on the cusp of being fired by the Senate, and likely to assure she could be placed AGAIN in a position of influence, which dismissal by the Senate would preclude) made a couple big promises that day, neither of which were fulfilled. 1) To review and consider any documentation we could provide to show why the permit should not be granted. 2) To be accountable to us.
Since that meeting, one of the VERY FEW given to Minnesota citizens hoping to Stop the unnecessary Enbridge pipeline project, all that we’ve seen from the MPCA and DNR has been failure.
1) Failure to WATCH Enbridge as they worked on one of the largest infrastructure projects to not benefit Minnesota that has ever crossed the state.
2) Failure to pull permits when Enbridge violations were discovered.
There are many places the states agencies failed us and a few of the most egregious during construction were:
Enbridge’s frac-out into the Mississippi River at the second crossing. 6000-9000 gallons of drilling mud frac-out into Misi-ziibi… DURING A PERIOD WHEN DRILLING WAS RESTRICTED FROM HAPPENING! [June 25th – violating the April 1- June 30 restriction period.] This was the first of frac-outs that occurring in Mississippi River. [MPCA FAILURE]
July frac-outs into Misi-ziibi Headwaters at the first crossing, where frac-out materials were left in the wetlands and, to this day, continue to show presence in the River Valley. [MPCA FAILURE]
Unbeknownst to citizens, until the mid-September notice, Enbridge willfully violated their construction permit, not informing the DNR of an aquifer breach for almost 5 months! Even though the DNR knew of the problems and it’s effects by early July, no notice was given to citizens for TWO MORE MONTHS… as Enbridge construction continued along the remainder of their corridor. [MDNR FAILURE]
I ask AGAIN: IF THESE PERMITS ARE NOT ALLOWING US TO STOP PROJECTS THAT VIOLATE THEM, WHAT IS THEIR PURPOSE?
And now we see: 1) A lack of work to remedy failures to the 401 permit on the frac-out concerns that remain.
2) Continued and apparently failing work by Enbridge to remedy the KNOWN Aquifer Breach in Clearbrook. TEN (10) full months since it happened now! LONGER THAN IT TOOK TO BUILD 337 MILES of Tar Sands Pipeline across our state… which was apparently the priority to remedying the aquifer breach threatening fragile calcareous fens. [FFS. If this doesn’t awaken people to the State’s priorities, will anything? (see more on that at the end of the blog…)]
3) No public transparency to the other two Breaches reportedly in existence per the DNR.
As we saw with COP26, our Agencies and “Leaders” are failing us. Not just here in Minnesota, but around the world, as they appear bound to helping their fossil fuel friends continue to destroy our planetary home.
Want to read more on the forest devastation being driven by our fossil fueled world? Check this out.
Want to read more on groups working to hold the Minnesota DNR accountable? Check out this recent blog post from Agate‘s Stephanie Hemphill.
Update: Received a response from Ms. Kuskie on 11/30/21 (after I re-requested a response):
Hi Jami,
Apologies for the delayed response, I was out of office last week. Though primary construction of the line is generally complete, the MPCA continues to review monitoring information and oversee ongoing work, and the independent environmental monitors are still active. HDD work, where pressurized drilling mud was in use, ended in early August, and the MPCA made available information on the “frac outs” reported to us around that time. I apologize for being unable to provide further detail at this time; Minn Stat 13.39 classifies as non-public data related to active investigations.
Thanks for reaching out last week and for sending me a nudge today.
-melissa
Response – or should I say Non-response… from Ms. Kuskie 11/30/21 13:26
Apparently, the public doesn’t need to know anything.
Last Wednesday, November 10th, I was called out to the Mississippi Headwaters River Valley as someone noted there was an “Enbridge Emergency Response” truck on Clearwater County 40. I headed out with the camera to see what I could capture.
As I passed the bridge over Misi-ziibi, orange construction signs, not seen in use for weeks or perhaps even a month, were up along The Great River Road denoting “Road Work Ahead”, “Be Prepared to Stop”, and “Flagger Ahead”. The Access Road that heads into the ridge that divides the Mississippi Headwaters River Valley and the LaSalle Valley was open. [There was also a new culvert installed at this entry (a previous video captured a team working on the crushed culvert weeks earlier).] I saw no trucks entering, save the standard white pick-ups, though Ron Turney reported multiple trucks entering and leaving the Access Road when I ran into him later in the morning in the Mississippi River Valley.
Here’s his drone photo showing activity in the area inside this Access Road, just east of the Mississippi River Crossing along the Line 93 corridor.
I headed out to review the area and see if there were other trucks in the region, perhaps coming out from the LaSalle Access Road on 105th street. And, as is not unusual, I happened upon a Precision Pipeline pump truck coming down 105th just south of the Access Road into LaSalle Creek .
Ron Turney’s photo is at the area of short timber road as shown above and the red star is the location of the Precision Pipeline Pump Truck sighting, just south of the timber matting Access Road into County Land a bit north of the Line 93 corridor crossing.
Though Enbridge has been crowing about its “New Line 3” being COMPLETED (now named Line 93 based on the corridor markers), the fact that Enbridge and Precision trucks are back in the neighborhood does NOT seem to indicate everything is “COMPLETED”.
Enbridge promised Minnesota a lot of jobs with their new tar sands pipeline project… but they sure didn’t deliver as promised on Line 3. We’re still waiting to see the totals on how things panned out for Minnesota jobs on their now-built Line 93. I’m guessing it may be even worse than the first figures that came out… with Minnesotans getting less than a third of the hours for the build to date in Q4-2020.
Enbridge promised the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) that at least 50 percent of the Line 3 construction jobs would go to Minnesotans. (The PUC didn’t require Enbridge to report on the number of Minnesotans employed, or include a sanction if Enbridge failed to meet its promises.)
Enbridge initially fell short of its jobs promise. Then it stopped reporting data.
Enbridge’s first jobs report (fourth quarter of 2020) voluntarily provided information on Minnesota-specific employment. It showed Minnesotans had only 33 percent of the jobs and 28 percent of the total hours, well below the 50 percent threshold.
What we were told by Enbridge is that there would be TWO SEASONS of work. The Trades backed Enbridge on that idea. What we saw in actuality was Enbridge rushing frantically to build their entire 337-mile tar sands pipeline project across Minnesota ~ in about 10 months.
I remember seeing guys hustle to get things done. I was wondering if they knew how hard Enbridge was screwing them all – getting them to run so the company could keep promises that incent CEO bonuses and don’t help those local Minnesota businesses hoping for two years of good income from local workers.
Well, now there is another Enbridge project in Clearwater County, did you hear?!? It’s a Cleanup Project. One of many, in fact, and it’s quite the pickle… especially with seven inches of snow predicted at the end of this week.
Since January 2021 – also 10 months ago – Enbridge has had little luck in making much progress at all on the Aquifer Breach they created at their Clearbrook Terminal when they WILLFULLY VIOLATED their Construction Permit.
No worries, the MN DNR didn’t pull their permit or stop work in any meaningful way… Nope. Not even when they realized this summer what had happened! I’m left wondering what the purpose of a Construction Permit is, if not to Stop Folks who VIOLATE them…
A fine of $20K surely means nothing to Enbridge.
Though they’re learning how expensive NOT PAYING ATTENTION to the Environment can be. And how tricky Mother Nature is when you’re trying to repair her complex systems.
I know this looks like more jobs… But I’m guessing these highly specialized jobs also may not be paychecks for Minnesotans. Time will tell.
What we do know is that Mother Earth is fragile and this was why Enbridge was only supposed to dig to a depth of 8-10 feet. They instead buried their pipeline 18 feet deep and drove pilings into the ground to a depth of 28 feet. And now, they can’t stop the water from flowing.
I don’t know how long Minnesota Agencies are giving them to fix this thing.
I know Mother Earth looks to be sending snow… any day now.
DNR Update on Enbridge Failure to remedy Aquifer Breach in allotted time frame
Still no answer on SOOOOO Many Questions around the Enbridge Line 3 Tar Sands Relocation and Expansion Pipeline Project. And today we’ll give a video explanation of what we’re seeing at the Aquifer Breach at the Enbridge Clearbrook Terminal that remains… Un-Resolved. So, as much as DNR has given another Resolution to Enbridge… we see no resolution of their many egregious damages along the Line 93 Corridor – as the Canadian Company has named their new pipeline.
Reporting on Sunday work on both 9/26 and 10/17 at the Clearbrook Terminal Aquifer Breach (One of three Enbridge is reportedly addressing.)
It’s been another whirlwind of a week in Enbridgeland.
As most find themselves accepting a future Enbridge wishes – and promotes daily on the radio still… and with large ads in the paper too? [I wouldn’t know as we don’t get a paper. Perhaps for the best to not have to see Enbridge lies…] Their favorite, in these end days, is the one about how well Enbridge works with the Tribes. [FFS. They’ve done all they can to DIVIDE Tribes!]
This weekend, we discovered a new tagline – financed by Enbridge I’m guessing, based on the large billboards and signs being for the companies who have long supported the Line 3 project …for what recompense, I know not, though perhaps some foolishly support them without compensation? These new signs are perhaps the scariest yet… so I’ll save them for the end of the blog.
Yet regardless of all their advertising, Enbridge could not be in a much bigger mess at this point in the game.
As we saw with Dakota Access Pipeline on their final river crossing, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe brought out tremendous support AGAINST a pipeline running through [not the white neighborhoods of Bismark… but] the Native lands of the Sioux People. All along the Line 3 process in Minnesota, we’ve seen the strong and vocal opposition, based in science and standing on the treaty rights of the Anishinaabeg.
Yet these citizens were stymied again and again by state agencies in apparent collusion with Enbridge as commissioners were nearly completely unwilling to meet with citizens or scientists, state representatives literally campaigned for the oil transport company to be paid millions of dollars in back taxes, and even the MN Court of Appeals seemed to find that, even though there was no demand forecast provided… deferring to the Public Utilities Commission was A-OK anyway!
Nevertheless, Enbridge is finding its project also falling apart at their last crossing… of the Clearwater River, no less. Ironic, no? As they are trying to wrap up construction, there is evidence of a frac-out once again.
To this DAY, STILL the Mississippi Headwaters continues to show evidence of frac-out drilling mud seeping up through the wetlands and rising to the water surfaces, and into Misi-ziibi. All coming downstream to a drinking water source near you?
RISE Coalition, Red Lake Treaty Camp, Camp Migizi, Honor the Earth, and Indigenous Environmental Network are holding Enbridge accountable for their destruction of our wetlands, waters, and lands. While the MN DNR and MPCA seem to do near nothing but allow Enbridge to continue said destruction. [Love Forever to Ron Turney…]
That was just the beginning of their HDD (Horizontally Directional Drilled) water crossings and their luck has continued to be poor as we now see the frac-outs at the Clearwater River, as well as the larger problem of Enbridge’s VIOLATION of their Construction Permit which resulted in their BREACH OF AN AQUIFER in Clearbrook – WAY BACK IN JANUARY… which the DNR claims to not have known about until June 15, 2021, and for which the public was not informed until just this month. This aquifer CONTINUES to leak as Enbridge finds no way to remedy their rupture. NINE MONTHS LATER… [FFS, I could make an entire HUMAN in that time!]
Keep in mind that June 15th was just ELEVEN (11) DAYS after the DNR approved an almost 10-fold increase in dewatering allowance for Enbridge. DID NO ONE CONNECT THE FUCKING DOTS ON THIS SHIT??? FFS How thoughtless ARE the DNR agency representatives???
Separately, the DNR has also referred this matter to the Clearwater County Attorney for criminal prosecution. The DNR has determined that Enbridge Energy violated Minnesota Statute 103G.141, subdivision 1, which makes it a crime to appropriate “waters of the state without previously obtaining a permit from the commissioner.”
The criminal referral and civil enforcement orders resulted from an investigation of Line 3 construction activities near Enbridge’s Clearbrook Terminal. Should the company violate the DNR’s restoration order, it would be subject to additional misdemeanor charges under state law.”
On Saturday, we discovered a large Enbridge holding tank farm in SE Bagley, just between the golf course and the nursing home facility in a small cul-de-sac neighborhood of quiet homes. On discovery, I wasn’t sure what this holding tank facility was all about, though on review of the footage at home that evening, I determined these were likely settling tanks for the large amounts of water Enbridge was removing from our landscape as they try to finish their work.
What are the contents of these tanks?
It seems two things, based on aerial and on the ground footage… and NO INPUT FROM THE DNR OR MPCA to Citizens of the dangers entailed.
First, they appear to be tanks for the frac-out contaminated waters vaccuumed from their HDD locations to be placed for settling – as their designed dewatering systems were FAR TOO INSUBSTANTIAL to accommodate the LARGE QUANTITIES OF FRAC-OUT CONTAMINATED WATER.
Approved Dewatering Site – 260th Street crossing of Line 93 in Clearwater County
Enbridge dumps water in here and hope the bales filter out any sediments as the liquid – water with any contaminants from the trench – flows back into the environment. Or so I hear… never saw one in use here in Clearwater County.
This was taken at the 250th street crossing where these dewatering stations never were installed.
Second, with the aquifer breach near Enbridge’s Clearbrook Terminal, it seems clear there could also be water coming from that location as well. AND at least one truck leaving this job site was marked not as “Non-Potable Water” but with HazMat Code 1993 – FLAMMABLE LIQUID.
Access Road 15C is at the Aquifer Breach at Enbridge’s Clearbrook Terminal
We saw multiple trucks leaving an area on Fairgrounds Road directly east of the Bagley dump. Not only did we see dump trucks (one that dumped its load in the dump) and “Non-Potable Water” trucks, but also another with HazMat Code 1993 – FLAMMABLE LIQUID, following that one directly to the tank farm facility SE of Bagley.
The Administrative Penalty Order issued to Enbridge found Enbridge far exceeded plans presented to the state of Minnesota for only an 8′ deep trench in the area:
Beginning on about January 21, 2021, and continuing through the date of this APO, Enbridge has violated Minn. Stat. § 103G.223 by causing reductions in groundwater resources available to the Leon 33 calcareous fen (Steenerson and Deep Lake Fens) (calcareous fens) without an approved calcareous fen management plan. In 2020, Enbridge informed DNR, in its request for a no effect concurrence, that its construction activities were unlikely to negatively impact the nearby calcareous fens because Enbridge intended to excavate about an eight foot deep trench. Instead, when Enbridge constructed the pipeline at or near the Clearbrook Terminal, Enbridge excavated an eighteen foot deep trench and installed sheet piling to a depth of 28 feet. Because Enbridge deviated from its plans, Enbridge breached an artesian aquifer, causing uncontrolled flow of groundwater. The uncontrolled flow affects the same aquifer that upwells into the Leon 33 calcareous fen (Steenerson and Deep Lake Fens) and is located approximately 4,800 feet northwest of the calcareous fens. Enbridge failed to submit a calcareous fen management plan for DNR approval prior conducting an activity that may drain, or otherwise degrade, wholly or partially, a calcareous fen.”
This situation is also noted in the Restoration and Replacement Order:
In an email to Randall Doneen dated July 7, 2021, Kristen Lenz of Merjent, Enbridge’s consultant, stated that as of March 19, 2021, the quantity of water pumped was estimated at 3.8 million gallons. Enbridge had not taken any flow or volume measurements since March 18. Attachments to the email showed that the depth of the bore pit was 18 feet deep by 45 feet long by 12 feet wide. The sheet piling was 30 feet long with 28 feet installed into the ground. This email contained maps, boring logs and other information about the area.”
That many still support Enbridge is a sign of a poor media capacity to shine the light on the egregious way Enbridge is already damaging our state, including for the last nine months, by bleeding water from our landscape – itself experiencing severe drought – as the pipeline company begged the DNR for a HUGE increase in their use of water from the state, all while not revealing their company’s BREACH of an Aquifer because they FAILED to CONFORM to their Construction Permit Requirements!!!
The media has failed – always seeming to drink the Enbridge kool-aid… perhaps because of all those big ads… that generated much-needed revenues during a pandemic? From scarcely reporting on the death and near-death of two Enbridge employees early on in the project work… to barely noting the inclusion of Enbridge pipeliners involved in sex crimes across the north… to not reporting on the police brutality by DNR Officers, State Troopers, and local law enforcement – with much exception here in Clearwater County where we’ve seen Sheriff Halverson honestly, fairly, and transparently enforcing the law. And while they are not covering those very serious and traumatic events, we watch them give the same short shrift to explaining to the public how the state agencies and local citizens have been duped by Enbridge money and propaganda. The media seem just another paid promoter for Enbridge.
Which brings me back to those scary new banners.
Now I know where I’m NOT getting a trailer if I need one… #Boycott King of the Road Trailers
For those who cannot easily name their product, they choose another word in their star-spangled banner ads:
At US Hwy 2 and Clearwater County 2 – the Heart of Enbridgeland?
I’m hoping this time, the public sees the already atrocious concerns being raised simply by Enbridge’s CONSTRUCTION process, and that they will certainly be rising to assure Minnesota is protected from this foreign corporation destroying even MORE of Minnesota than we’ve seen to date.
We surely have seen that no one in the State Agencies are coming to our rescue.
Update 9/29/21:
Bad news: PUC apparently giving Enbridge the Green Light… even though there is SO MUCH MESS STILL REMAINING! Exposed and incomplete wiring not done at many crossings along the RA-05 portion of the route – even at the Clearbrook Terminal.
Photo taken 9/26/21 at east side of Highway 92 just west of the Clearbrook Terminal. These kinds of loose wires are rampant throughout the county, yet Enbridge proposes their project “complete”??? Who inspected this fucking project? Apparently, Minnesota Agencies trust Enbridge for that too…This was taken on 9/25/21 at the Line 93 (that’s its new name…) crossing of 298th Street.
Note the VERY WIDE CORRIDOR which Enbridge seemingly hopes to be able to move all their pipelines into – as their easements for their pipelines thru Leech Lake Reservation end in 2029. Wishing more had understood the critical reasons we have worked so hard to #StopLine3.
Retired at 45 
