Most of advisory group quits over permit for Line 3 pipeline

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Twelve of 17 members of a group that advises the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency on environmental justice issues have resigned over a permit for the controversial Enbridge Energy oil replacement project.

The Environmental Justice Advisory Group delivered the letter Monday in protest of the agency’s approval last week of a key water quality permit for the Line 3 project. The group wrote they are submitting their “collective and public resignation” because they “cannot continue to legitimize and provide cover for the MPCA’s war on Black and brown people.”

Line 3 starts in Alberta and clips a corner of North Dakota before crossing northern Minnesota en route to Enbridge’s terminal in Superior, Wisconsin. The 337-mile line in Minnesota would be the last step in replacing the deteriorating pipeline that was built in the 1960s.

Enbridge now only needs a federal permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a construction permit from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources before it can begin construction, perhaps as soon as next month, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.

“I think it’s a con job. It’s a public relations trick,” said Lea Foushee, who was in her second two-year term on the advisory group before she resigned this week.