As Native Americans opposed to President Trump's restarting of oil pipeline projects gather in Washington, D.C., opponents of other pipeline projects found a target in Bemidji. U.S. State Department officials were met by hundreds of protesters at a Tuesday question-and-answer session on the Alberta Clipper oil pipeline.
Calgary-based Enbridge Energy hopes to substantially increase the volume of crude oil flowing across the Canadian border in the Alberta Clipper pipeline. Bringing more oil across international borders requires a presidential permit.
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"Right now the company is allowed to pump a maximum of 500,000 barrels per day through this border segment. If the company is granted a permit to expand, they would be allowed to pump 890,000 barrels per day," said U.S. State Department Environmental lead Mary Hassell.For the last three years, Hassell's team has been working out what impact that expansion might have on the environment. The review is still just a draft. Hassell and a handful of others from her department came to Bemidji to answer questions as part of a public comment period.
Nearly every mile of the Alberta Clipper from just south of the Canadian border, across northern Minnesota to Superior, Wis., is already running at full capacity. Enbridge has built up their pump stations, and installed larger storage tanks. And so far they've gotten around permit requirements by siphoning oil from the Clipper, and pumping it across the border through an older pipeline.
Once it's in the U.S. the detoured oil rejoins the Clipper.
Enbridge has argued it makes sense to allow the pipeline to flow uninterrupted. But hundreds of protesters at the public comment event disagreed. Around 300 people marched to the Sanford Center, carrying banners and signs that tore in the gusty wind.
Once inside, a few brought out drums and started a circle dance in the middle of a conference room.
Winona LaDuke, executive director of the Native American environmental group Honor the Earth, organized the protest. She says it's not just about a small section of the Alberta Clipper.
She worries about oil spills damaging the groundwater and wild rice beds of northern Minnesota. She said people are motivated by the Dakota Access pipeline protests. Around 750 people have been arrested since August in the area of the remaining section of that pipeline that is nearly complete.
"Nothing Enbridge does is going to be easy for them," LaDuke said.
The Associated Press contributed reporting for this story.