Minnesota utility regulators discussing whether to allow controversial pipeline to reopen

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission is meeting Thursday to discuss whether to grant a permit to Magellan Pipeline Company to reopen its gas pipeline near the Pipestone National Monument, a site sacred to tribal nations.

Commission chair Katie Sieben noted as the hearing began that the PUC received a security threat, which forced the commission to move the hearing to a smaller hearing room. The threat was received earlier this week. About 150 people are watching in an overflow room.

Christy Brusven, representing Magellan, said at the beginning of the hearing that the company has satisfied the requirements of a 2025 order and has taken steps to avoid natural resources.

The Indigenous Protector Movement held a prayer circle outside the hearing room before it got underway. The group posted on its Facebook page that “Pipestone is sacred. It has been sacred for generations, long before the state of Minnesota existed, long before pipelines and corporations began carving up the land for profit.”

The commission had required Magellan to coordinate with tribal nations to complete an archaeological study along two possible, separate routes that put distance between the pipeline and the pipestone quarries.

The pipeline that closed in 2022 cuts diagonally across the monument. That line pumped gas between Sioux Falls, S.D., and Marshall, part of a large network of pipelines which run between Texas and Minnesota.

The 300-plus acre Pipestone National Monument consists of pipestone pits surrounded by a tall grass prairie. Created by Congress in 1937, the monument is administered by the National Park Service.

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