RE: Please Vote NO on HF 3759 – Terminating PUC process and granting immediate Approval to Construct Canadian Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline
To: Chairperson Garafalo
Members of the House Job Growth & Energy Affordability and Finance Committee
March 27, 2018
Dear Representative,
We, the undersigned, wish to express a deep concern about HF 3759, a bill to immediately authorize the construction and routing of the Canadian Enbridge Line 3. This measure would terminate all review and permitting processes at the Public Utilities Commission and give Enbridge full authority to build the pipeline immediately, on the company’s chosen route, without any substitute form of regulatory oversight.
Minnesotans have worked hard to ensure a fair and evidence-based process. So far, the review process has taken into consideration hundreds of hours of public testimony, tens of thousands of public comments, and the expert analysis of dozens of witnesses brought by Enbridge and intervening parties. This legislation would disregard proceedings put in place in statute and rule, the good faith participation of community members and groups with a wide variety of views, and ignore due process — solely to the benefit of one corporation. This bill is not in Minnesota’s tradition of good governance.
Moreover, HF 3759 would grant this approval without actually issuing the customary Certificate of Need and Route Permit, meaning that the State would be unable to impose conditions on those permits or revoke them in the future, even to avoid harm to Minnesota citizens. To circumvent this process would neglect the needs and concerns of communities, landowners, industries, and First Nations along the proposed route.
The Line 3 pipeline review process is almost complete as planned, with a Public Utilities Commission decision expected by June. Minnesota’s leaders must let it finish instead of preemptively granting extraordinary power to a foreign company and telling tens of thousands of Minnesotans that their time and investment in Minnesota’s review process has been ignored.
We ask you to please vote NO on HF 3759.
Sincerely,
Steve Morse
Minnesota Environmental Partnership
and the following 13 groups
Alliance for Sustainability
Friends of Minnesota Scientific & Natural Areas
Friends of the Mississippi River
Honor the Earth
Izaak Walton League – Minnesota Division
Land Stewardship Project
MN Center for Environmental Advocacy
Minnesota Native Plant Society
MN350
Pollinator Friendly Alliance
Save Our Sky Blue Waters
Sierra Club – North Star Chapter
Wilderness in the City