Stop Line 3

The contradiction of a governor who pledges to protect Minnesota's climate and future generations—but then doesn't do everything he can to stop a new pipeline from being built across his state—is really getting to me. It's a story that's echoed by Democrats again and again: they use what I consider the excuse of constraint from existing legalisms when we are in a crisis that transcends those. What will those legalisms matter when we've passed 2°C of warming? Because that's what's going to happen. 

Governor Tim Walz supposedly believes that's where we're headed if we don't act, and understands what it will take to decrease our greenhouse gas emissions, but he is not stopping the Line 3 pipeline.

In this case, the state's Department of Commerce has given the opinion that the pipeline is not needed to replace the capacity of the pipeline that's already in operation, so he could follow that finding, but the Pollution Control Agency has said it is "safe" to build the new pipeline (though of course others disagree). The new route crosses dozens of new wetlands that the old pipeline doesn't touch and it also crosses the Mississippi River in a new location. It also violates the treaty rights of three tribes who object to it. 

Perhaps you heard that the stuff humans have made now outweighs all the natural biomass on earth, which is astounding, given how much biomass there is in plants alone, let alone animals (including all the fish in the sea). Our human stuff is mostly nonbiodegradable. It's trash, permanently. We are trash-making machines.

The Biden administration has the slogan "Build Back Better," referring both to a post-Trump and a post-pandemic America. Stopping this pipeline should be part of that. "Better" means keeping carbon in the ground, not drilling it or mining it, pumping or piping it, trucking or training it. "Better" means finally abiding by treaties instead of violating them. Governor Walz, be part of Better.

Creating a few thousand jobs for a couple of months make no sense just to satisfy a big corporation that has spent a lot of money lobbying to destroy pristine parts of our state and watershed. All so they can sell tar-sands oil to burn into our atmosphere and cook our habitat.