Arguments Begin In Enbridge Cross-Border Pipeline Suit

Environmentalists, Native Groups Say U.S. State Department Not Enforcing Its Own Rules

By
Environmental Defence Canada (CC-BY-NC)

A federal judge began hearing arguments Thursday in a lawsuit filed by environmentalists against the U.S. State Department. The groups are alleging an energy firm is skirting federal law as it moves more oil across the U.S.-Canadian border.

Winona LaDuke, White Earth Nation member and executive director of Honor the Earth, said Enbridge Energy is attempting to avoid proper review of its proposed pipeline expansion under the National Environmental Policy Act.

“A Canadian corporation doing business in the United States should go by federal law and should go by tribal law and that nobody gets a pass here and that the State Department should go by the law as well,” said LaDuke.

Stay informed on the latest news

Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Enbridge has proposed nearly doubling capacity on its Line 67 or Alberta Clipper pipeline to send up to 800,000 barrels per day of Canadian tar sands oil across the border to its Superior terminal. In order to so, the energy firm would need to obtain a presidential permit for the cross-border expansion with the approval of President Barack Obama.

Environmentalists and native groups argue Enbridge and the U.S. State Department met in private over a maneuver to shift oil between two pipelines at the border, allowing the company to increase the amount of oil being shipped. They say the move disregards public input and the public process for cross-border expansions, as well as circumvents federal laws.

Enbridge media relations manager Shannon Gustafson provided the following statement on the lawsuit:

“Enbridge is operating its pipelines consistent with the presidential permits and other permits that it holds for Lines 3 and 67, while meeting its responsibility and obligations to serve its shippers’ needs. We have responded fully to that lawsuit through our submissions to the court, which are a matter of public record. We believe that there is no merit to the claims of the Sierra Club and others.”

The company is still waiting on the State Department for results of an environmental review on the proposed expansion. U.S. State Department spokesman Christopher Rich declined to comment, citing department policy not to comment on pending litigation.

Plaintiffs expect federal Judge Michael Davis to make a decision on the lawsuit in the next four to six months.