Minnesota DFL leader Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan recently expressed her opposition to Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project, saying she is “once again speaking up.”
Flanagan took to Facebook last week to reiterate her long-standing disapproval of the pipeline.
“My position has not changed,” she wrote, adding that “Line 3 is inconsistent” with her “family’s values,” as she is a member of the White Earth Nation.
“While I cannot stop Line 3, I will continue to do what is within my power to make sure our people are seen, heard, valued and protected,” said Flanagan.
She noted that she is an “Ojibwe woman all of the time.”
“I cannot simply flip a switch and turn my identity on and off because of my job. I am also a proud member of the White Earth Nation, and I stand with my people in opposition to Line 3,” Flanagan wrote.
Just this February, the Minnesota Court of Appeals rejected the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and Red Lake Band of Chippewa’s lawsuit that hoped to halt construction of Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline.
Now, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and Red Lake Band of Chippewa have joined forces with the Sierra Club and activist group Honor the Earth to petition the Minnesota Supreme Court to review their case. They are arguing that the “certificate of need and route permit” obtained by Enbridge should never have been approved.
The Walz administration and Minnesota Democrats have a history of challenging the construction of Line 3 — they challenged the project’s certificate of approval last summer and created taxpayer-funded lawsuits over certain permits obtained by Enbridge, even after Gov. Tim Walz said on the campaign trail that he “was satisfied with the PUC’s decision to approve the pipeline.”
The pipeline is nearly 70% complete, despite celebrities’ attempts to persuade President Joe Biden to halt the project and protesters locking themselves to excavators at the construction site.
“Line 3 has passed every test through six years of regulatory and permitting review,” stated Juli Kellner, communications specialist for Enbridge.
Megan Olson
Megan Olson is a 2020 graduate of the University of Minnesota with degrees in political science and history. She works in public affairs in addition to serving on the Legislative Advisory Council for School District 196. She is also on the school board for FIT academy, a charter school in Apple Valley.
