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Enbridge's privately funded pro-pipeline police force in Minnesota
86 Plays3 years ago
Minnesota is often called the most Canadian state in the U.S. and given the fact a pipeline corporation is working closely with the police to arrest and harass their political opponents we're inclined to agree. Alleen Brown of the Intercept joins us to discuss how Alberta-based pipeline corporation Enbridge is funding and supplying police in Minnesota in order to quash Indigenous-led resistance to the Line 3 pipeline.
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Links:
- Local Cops Said Pipeline Company Had Influence Over Government Appointment
- Enbridge shells out $750K to law enforcement for Line 3 protest costs
- How Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline is dividing Indigenous lands and people
- Bonnie Raitt and Indigo Girls join Minnesota activists in new Line 3 protest song
- No More Pipeline Blues (On This Land Where We Belong)
Recommended
Transcript
Unionization and Media Praise
00:00:00
Speaker
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00:00:24
Speaker
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Introducing Aline Brown and Enbridge Coverage
00:00:43
Speaker
Friends and enemies, welcome to The Progress Report. I am your host, Duncan Kinney. We're recording today here in Amiskwitchi, Wisconsin, otherwise known as Edmonton, Alberta, here in Treaty 6 territory.
00:00:53
Speaker
And joining us today is Aline Brown of The Intercept. Aline is a journalist who recently broke quite frankly an incredible story about how Alberta-based pipeline company Enbridge is paying and supplying their own private anti-pipeline
00:01:10
Speaker
anti-pipeline protest police force in Minnesota, as well as influencing government to get what they want as the construction of that line three pipeline proceeds through the state. Aline, welcome to the podcast. Thanks so much for having me.
00:01:27
Speaker
I mean, I think the joke is that Minnesota is the most Canadian part of Canada, and now that Minnesota has moved into pipeline brutally repressing indigenous-led pipeline protests, they really are really just kind of stepping in Canada's footsteps. Yeah, I guess the Upper Midwest has that in common with Canada.
00:01:53
Speaker
So, so let's, let's, uh, jump into this story and let's, let's set the stage here and just establish some facts. I
Pipeline Replacement Project Overview
00:01:59
Speaker
think line three is kind of one of the less famous of the pipelines. Uh, you know, that Alberta politics has become obsessed with over the past decade or so, but, but let's just kind of establish some baselines about line three. So it is a, it's a pipeline replacement project. It's replacing an existing pipeline, right?
00:02:18
Speaker
Yeah, so that's true, but this replacement project actually dramatically expands the volume of tar sands oil that will pass, or that would, if the project is completed, pass through
00:02:33
Speaker
Minnesota. So the pipeline that's in place right now is really old, corroded. It's not running at full capacity. This expansion will basically double what it can transport. And it also is rerouted in some areas. In Minnesota in particular,
00:02:58
Speaker
the Leech Lake Reservation did not want the pipeline to continue to go through their land and so the pipeline is going through a new area and you know so communities will face the risks the pipeline represents for the first time.
00:03:19
Speaker
Interesting. To give
Safety and Ethical Concerns of Line 3
00:03:21
Speaker
you a context of where this pipeline is going from what place to what other place, it's going from Hardesty, Alberta, which is just outside of Edmonton, all the way to Superior, Wisconsin, which is an oil refinery and storage hub that's just over the Minnesota border in Wisconsin, and it's right on the westernmost tip of Lake Superior.
00:03:39
Speaker
Fun fact about Superior, Wisconsin, there was another Canadian oil company, Husky, which is now Sinovus, which had a massive refinery explosion in Superior in 2018 that injured 36 people and that refinery is still being rebuilt. But Apropos of nothing, just wanted to mention that when I was doing the research for this piece.
00:03:58
Speaker
But this is, again, while it might be one of the less famous pipelines, this is, again, a massive project. The largest project that Enbridge, the company has ever done, comes in at around $9 billion. The pipeline is more than 1600 kilometers long. And as you said, it does increase the carrying capacity of the pipeline. And when fully operational, we'll be able to move 760,000 barrels per day.
00:04:23
Speaker
And most importantly, the only segment of this line that is not yet complete is the 542 kilometers of the pipeline that travel through Minnesota. And so Enbridge is very keen to get this pipeline construction done. And really where it all really gets kind of fucked up is this detail from
00:04:46
Speaker
the story that you wrote in the Intercept on this. And it blows my mind that as part of the permit to build Line 3, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission created a special Enbridge funded account that public safety officials could use to pay for policing Enbridge's political opponents. Why did they do this? So, you know, this all really goes back to Standing Rock, which if
00:05:14
Speaker
your listeners will recall, was this big pipeline fight in Minnesota's neighboring states, particularly in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017. So thousands of people came to these camps on the edge of the Standing Rock Reservation to fight the Dakota Access, or to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline, you know, non-violently.
00:05:38
Speaker
This was the biggest international gathering of US tribes in the last century. It was a really big deal. And, you know, as people participated in these direct action protests, the private security and police response
00:05:56
Speaker
was enormous. So one of the most iconic scenes from that movement was police spraying fire hoses on demonstrators at night in below freezing weather. At one point, private security also sicked police dogs or not police dogs, private security dogs on pipeline opponents. Another thing that was captured on video. So the repression in
00:06:24
Speaker
connected to that movement is quite notorious. In turn, the law enforcement and public security agencies and other public agencies in North Dakota incurred massive expenses. I think it was $38 million that they ended up paying
00:06:49
Speaker
to respond to these pipeline demonstrations. Minnesota, as they were seeing Line 3 come up and seeing that there was going to be massive opposition to this project, for seven years, people have been
00:07:10
Speaker
opposing this project in public hearings and various other venues, Minnesota was really afraid of another Standing Rock. And so they wanted to set something up so they wouldn't face those kinds of expenses. And really a lot of what's in the Line 3 permit is kind of these measures to avoid the pitfalls of Standing Rock. But
00:07:37
Speaker
In doing that, they kind of institutionalized this public-private collaboration, particularly between security, various security agencies in Minnesota and the Enbridge Corporation. So this account is kind of the prime example. It was set up so that
00:08:02
Speaker
Enbridge would deposit an initial chunk of money into this state managed account and law enforcement agencies and other public agencies would be able to submit invoices for expenses directly related to the pipeline. There was also an opportunity for agencies to submit applications for
Funding and Neutrality Debate
00:08:28
Speaker
for grants related to human trafficking, since a lot of people were worried about the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women and the risk that an influx of temporary workers from, you know, largely from out of state or in, you know, I think largely from out of state would present to these communities. So,
00:08:54
Speaker
So there is an official that has been appointed by Minnesota to approve each of these invoices that comes through. Um, but ultimately it's Enbridge that's paying police to protect their pipeline from, you know, nonviolent demonstrators. Yeah. Protect in this case is, is, uh, is doing a lot of work. Um, I mean,
00:09:22
Speaker
I obviously have a lot of issues with this kind of like privatization of police and this like incredibly.
00:09:32
Speaker
messed up relationship between police and this Canadian-based pipeline corporation. But it just seems that the mainstream media is kind of just cottoning on that this is a problem now. You've reported on this for a while, but there's this story from the Minneapolis Star Tribune from April 24th.
00:09:53
Speaker
That goes into some detail like they're following up on your reporting about how much money they've shelled out for law enforcement on these line three protest costs. But I'm just going to read a quote from it because it's one of these kind of hilarious journalism speak things. Quote, some legal experts said the fund raises sticky questions about the line between public law enforcement and private security needs.
00:10:13
Speaker
I don't want to make any claims that this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it is a fraught thing," said Henry Blair, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul. The question at the ground level is, does private party money going towards a government function impact the way police are prioritizing their obligations? Are police occupying that neutral position that we want them to be occupying? Protesters say they are not.
00:10:36
Speaker
Which is a lot of words that you could literally handle in a paragraph and just say, yeah, this public-private partnership is bad because the police are not supposed to be the playthings of private corporations. But that's mainstream kind of journalism for you.
00:10:58
Speaker
It's a funny thing. But I mean, who could have predicted that, like, having pipeline companies pay for policing costs of pipeline protests could lead to the police being less than neutral? You know, me, if you had asked me, I would have predicted that. Yeah, I mean, you know, Enbridge is paying the police to monitor its political opponents. You know, like, it creates an incredible incentive
00:11:27
Speaker
for police to err toward the interests of this pipeline corporation that a lot of Minnesota residents say presents a serious risk to their health and the future of the globe, really, because it's climate change that is one of the biggest risks here.
00:11:59
Speaker
Exactly. And I
Coordination Between Enbridge and Law Enforcement
00:12:00
Speaker
think now is a good time to get into kind of the details of what you've discovered in the course of your reporting on this. You know, how much are Enbridge and the police and the government of Minnesota kind of cooperating to kind of quash dissent and protest? Yeah. So, I mean, obviously there's this account and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that have so far gone toward local law enforcement.
00:12:29
Speaker
But there's also other kinds of coordination. Another thing that's in the pipeline permit is that Enbridge would put together these security plans for each county, and in each county, the local sheriffs would review and approve these security plans. It was meant to be a safeguard against activities that public police might not like,
00:12:56
Speaker
but it really institutionalized this public-private collaboration. Another example that I uncovered via public information requests was, again, surrounding this account and the public official that would approve these invoices that law enforcement has been submitting. So this summer, law enforcement or a lot of sheriffs along the route were really
00:13:21
Speaker
kind of concerned about who would be put in this position. So one email I got via a public information request was from a sheriff in one of the counties along the route saying, you know, we really need to let the Public Utilities Commission know that the person selected needs to be someone that we agree upon, not a member of the Public Utilities Commission, not a state or county or federal employee, but someone that has an understanding of rioting and field force operations.
00:13:52
Speaker
In response, another sheriff replies and says, I had a discussion with Troy Kirby and Bridges' Chief of Security this morning and expressed concern over that position on the escrow account. He indicated that they have some influence on the hiring of that position and he would be involved to ensure that we are taken care of one way or another.
00:14:15
Speaker
So this indicates, if nothing else, that the sheriffs or some of the sheriffs along the route are in close communication with Enbridge security officials and that there's kind of a shared interest that Enbridge is assuring the sheriffs that they will take care of these law enforcement officials.
00:14:41
Speaker
Um, whether or not Enbridge really influenced, um, the hiring of this account manager. Um, I think we don't have all the details yet. Uh, the guy that was hired is a, um, you know, former police officer from the twin cities area, the big Metro area in Minnesota. Um, you know, so he came from the public sector.
00:15:07
Speaker
Um, but I think there's still questions about, of course, Enbridge, you know, Enbridge didn't really comment. Um, the public utilities commission says that, says that, uh, Enbridge had nothing to do with this hire. Um, but you know, trying to do some more digging to find out if that's true or not. Um.
00:15:28
Speaker
Yeah, and I guess one other thing I would say, I actually have a lot more public records I'm still going through. I think I'll be able to share more details about this public-private collaboration as time goes on. But one thing I've heard from people on the ground is that there's a sense that private security has police on speed dial. So one pipeline opponent said she and others will show up
00:15:55
Speaker
in the vicinity of a construction site, not even necessarily on the construction site. And she'll get a text from the sheriff not long after indicating that he knows that she's there. And she's heard that images of her have been passed along to this sheriff, presumably from private security. And if you go there, private security, on all these sites, there's a truck with a guy
00:16:23
Speaker
filming you with this camera. Um, so where those images are going, I think we don't really know, but we can guess that perhaps they're going to the police. Interesting.
Protests and Indigenous Rights
00:16:34
Speaker
So you, I mean, you brought it up. What, what kind about the kind of situation on the ground, what kind of activism and protests and organizing have we seen on the ground against a line three in Minnesota? And like, who are the players? What are their concerns? Sure. So over the past year, um,
00:16:54
Speaker
A number of different people have organized small camps near planned construction sites. In the last few months since construction began in December, they've held a number of gatherings and ceremonies at the edge of rivers put at risk by the pipeline with some people organizing more obstructive direct action protests.
00:17:23
Speaker
protest where they'll, for example, lock themselves together in a chain blocking access to a construction site or lock themselves to some kind of construction equipment so as to slow down construction. But all of the people I've spoken to who are involved really adhere to a philosophy of nonviolence and really
00:17:53
Speaker
the range of people participating in this movement is pretty wide. So there's people that will lock down to equipment. There's people that will kind of march down a sidewalk. It's really broad. But the movement is certainly led by Anishinaabe women, I would say, and non-binary people, particularly members of the Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota. And there's kind of three different
00:18:21
Speaker
I guess bundles of problems that people are talking about with relation to the pipeline. So, and I would say that's treaties, climate, the climate crisis and water. Um, so the pipeline, there's, you know, uh, a few, uh, big Ojibwe reservations in Minnesota and the pipeline kind of passes through this space in, in between the reservations. Um, but.
00:18:48
Speaker
that territory is still treaty territory. So various tribes in Minnesota have rights to hunt and gather and carry out other activities on this chunk of treaty land. So multiple tribes are arguing that they were not properly consulted on the construction of this pipeline through their treaty territory and that the pipeline threatens treaty rights.
00:19:17
Speaker
There's also people really concerned about the climate crisis and the fact that tar sands oil is one of the most polluting fossil fuels in the world. And so at a moment where we really need to be cutting back production of fossil fuels and use of fossil fuels, this pipeline is significantly expanding the transport of this incredibly dirty fossil fuel.
00:19:46
Speaker
Um, then there's also a lot of people, and obviously there's overlap between all of these people concerned about all these things. Um, a lot of people are worried about the risk that the pipeline represents to water. So Enbridge is responsible for some of the largest inland oil spills in the US. Um, Enbridge land. Oh yeah. People in, people in Michigan, people in Michigan love Enbridge, right? Especially around Kalamazoo. Yeah.
00:20:16
Speaker
Exactly. So there was this massive spill in the Kalamazoo River a few years ago that was really nasty. It wasn't noticed right away. This dill bit oozed into the river and these tributaries kind of sunk to the bottom and was really hard to clean up. So
00:20:43
Speaker
That's kind of the most famous Enbridge oil spill in the US. But actually, I believe the largest inland oil spill in the US was actually Enbridge line three. This was a spill in around Grand Rapids, Minnesota that occurred in the 90s and really didn't get much publicity until opponents of this line three expansion
00:21:11
Speaker
did some research and realized that this had happened. So there's a record that people are looking to and are very concerned about. That's when the pipeline is in operation. People are also worried about the process of drilling this pipeline under these rivers and waterways. So a number of rivers will require this kind of horizontal directional drilling that
00:21:41
Speaker
kind of risks. A lot of the risk there has to do with the fluids that kind of lubricate the passage of the pipeline under the riverbed. So it's not going through the water, it's actually going under it. And in other places, there have been these incidents where that fluid
00:22:04
Speaker
has kind of gotten loose and leaked into waterways. And there's a lot of sediment in that fluid that can kind of cloud the waterways and risk drinking water and aquatic life. So yeah, so those are kind of the range of issues that people are concerned about. And people are really, especially for indigenous people, these lands and waters are really kind of inherent to
00:22:33
Speaker
to their identities, to who they are as people. So people are really saying that if this continues to go forward, they're willing to put their bodies on the line to block this non-violently, to block this pipeline. And right now, I guess the other, there's also legal fights going on and there's a lot of pressure on the Biden administration to put a halt to this pipeline. We'll see if that happens.
00:23:03
Speaker
And how much of the pipeline is actually kind of constructed at this point and how much is still remaining?
Pipeline Progress and Environmental Concerns
00:23:09
Speaker
It is about 50% done. And a lot of what's left is this horizontal directional drilling under rivers and waterways. So people are kind of looking to this summer as a period of a lot of protest and action if construction continues. They're kind of on pause right now, they say.
00:23:31
Speaker
So in Alberta, last year we drafted a law that made it super extra illegal to kind of protest pipelines and disrupt so-called critical oil and gas infrastructure. Has Minnesota kind of jumped on that train? Are they looking at doing something similar? Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, that has been a trend
00:23:52
Speaker
across the US since Standing Rock. So since 2017, 16 bills that criminalize, I guess, protest against pipelines in particular have passed in various states. These are known as critical infrastructure protection laws,
00:24:18
Speaker
So they're kind of attached to this really neutral sounding framework of critical infrastructure that suggests that something like an oil pipeline is so important to the economic security and physical security of the US that it deserves extra protection. And so a lot of these laws, yeah, increased penalties,
00:24:47
Speaker
for people that trespass on fossil fuel infrastructure property, or a lot of times they use really vague language like, you know, you can't impede the activity of this critical infrastructure. What impede means, you know, I guess is up to this prosecutor police.
00:25:12
Speaker
And in a lot of cases, they also have penalties for anybody that conspires with someone to trespass on this property. And in some cases, the penalties for those people are even higher than they are for actual trespassers. This year alone, I think the laws just passed in Kansas and Arkansas.
00:25:39
Speaker
critical infrastructure laws. And there's pending bills in Minnesota, as well as Alabama and Montana. And Minnesota actually has like four different draft legislation with varying, I guess, I mean, I guess they're just kind of throwing a bunch of options out there hoping someone will go for it.
00:26:04
Speaker
And it's actually something that's been introduced in Minnesota kind of year after year. I think it's kind of unlikely that it will pass.
Legislation Against Protests
00:26:13
Speaker
But as you can see, looking back to 2017, this model has really had legs. And it's actually been pushed by the American legislative
00:26:26
Speaker
Exchange Council, which is this notorious organization where state mostly Republican state legislators kind of team up with lobbyists, including fossil fuel industry representatives to advance
00:26:49
Speaker
bills that they agree are going to be great for everyone, especially industry. They draw up bills at these meetings and then they spread those bills all across the country, right? Exactly. And so this critical infrastructure bill is one that they have been promoting since 2017.
00:27:14
Speaker
and organizations like the American Petrochemical Manufacturers Association, I might be getting that acronym wrong, but have really been instrumental in advancing these bills. So it's just another kind of tool in the toolbox for industry, the fossil fuel industry to sort of team up with
00:27:41
Speaker
the criminal justice system to go after their political opponents.
00:27:47
Speaker
So you're a Minnesotan, even though I don't think you live there anymore. You do cover it and you know the place well. Like what are the politics of Minnesota like and where does this issue kind of rank? Like in Alberta, we have this like incredibly toxic, like petro politics where like pipelines are just this incredibly toxic. There's this multi-partisan, bipartisan consensus that pipelines are the best thing ever and that everything must be done in order to build more pipelines.
00:28:16
Speaker
What's the situation on the ground like in Minnesota when it comes to this issue?
Political and Celebrity Influence
00:28:23
Speaker
Yeah. So I'd say it's kind of varied. It's not like, you know, Standing Rock was primary, Standing Rock is in North Dakota and there, you know, there's a lot of oil and gas production.
00:28:34
Speaker
that drives politics. In Minnesota, there's less of that. And the state is kind of known as a progressive state, particularly because there's this big metro area of Minneapolis and St. Paul that drives a lot of politics.
00:28:51
Speaker
But if you get outside the metro area, the politics look really different. There's a lot of support for the fossil fuel industry and a lot of counties get tax revenue from
00:29:10
Speaker
things like pipelines. So I think it's really, it's really mixed. You know, there's also a lot of, Minnesota's a really watery place. A lot of people are, you know, engaged in different outdoor activities and sports. A lot of hunters and anglers and hikers and campers. So that interest in protecting that
00:29:40
Speaker
you know, that those lands and waters is significant. Like I said, there's also a lot of indigenous people in Minnesota who are really driven to protect these lands and waters. And so the governor right now, Tim Waltz, is, I would say kind of, yeah, I would say centrist in that he wants to give an appearance of,
00:30:10
Speaker
you know, I guess protecting the environment and the climate. He's listening to your concerns, but he's not actually going to do anything about it. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And he's been very, you know, a lot of people have also been looking to the police and security response in the Twin Cities to the uprisings related to the police killing of George Floyd. You know, Tim Waltz has been pretty
00:30:41
Speaker
pretty quick to deploy the National Guard, for example. And so a lot of people see that as kind of a testing ground for what might happen in northern Minnesota this summer. Yeah, the summer definitely seems to be like a big flashpoint, as you said, when it comes to kind of completing line three and the indigenous-led resistance against it.
00:31:05
Speaker
Uh, the, the kind of final thing I want to bring up in regards to this story is gotta end on this, gotta end on the, the celebs, the celebs have weighed in. And, um, you know, I, I regret to inform the war room here in Alberta, which, uh, Aline, if you're not aware, is this $30 million a year propaganda shop, the, the government of Alberta set up in order to kind of prosecute.
00:31:28
Speaker
and do PR war stuff for the oil and gas industry. But country legend superstar Bonnie Raitt has contributed vocals to a song that was just recently released called No More Pipeline Blues. And it's a song that's raising money and awareness for various kind of stop blind three causes in Minnesota. Bonnie Raitt and the Indigo Girls are on this track.
00:31:53
Speaker
And Bonnie Raitt mentions tar sands, which again is a bad word here in Alberta, and sings the lines, one million barrels a day come through these sacred lands on this land to which we belong with oil thicker than crude. 4,000 workers come on our way, got them pandemic pipeline blues. Yeah, I expect that the war room will be whipping up a petition and some type of flashy online campaign to
00:32:21
Speaker
get Bonnie Ray to apologize to our hardworking oil and gas workers literally like any day now. And that is gonna be the song that's gonna take us out. Aline, I wanna thank you so much for coming on the pod and kind of explaining the situation here. This is one of those, again, pipeline politics is this kind of ubiquitous thing in Alberta.
00:32:48
Speaker
But this is an Alberta-based corporation that is incredibly incentivized and all in on getting this project completed in another country, in another state, where Indigenous people and various First Nations along the route have
00:33:05
Speaker
very real concerns, much like we have seen in pipeline projects in Canada. And so, again, thanks again for coming on the pod. What's the
Aline Brown's Platforms and Contact
00:33:16
Speaker
best way for people to kind of find you on the internet, follow along with your work? Yeah, so my work is published at theintercept.com. And you can also follow me on Twitter at Eileen Brown.
00:33:31
Speaker
and I'm on Facebook at Aline Brown and I publish or post all my work in all those spaces. Awesome. Well, also folks, if you like this podcast and you want to keep hearing more like it, it's very easy. You know, share it with your friends, post it on your social media channels. Writing reviews on Apple podcasts are also very helpful. And if you really like this podcast, the biggest thing you can do to support us is to join the roughly 500 other folks
00:33:58
Speaker
who help keep this independent media project going and go to theprogressreport.ca slash patrons, or there's just a link in the show notes, put in your credit card and contribute $5, $10, $15 a month, whatever you can afford. We really appreciate it. Also, if you have any notes, thoughts, things you think I messed up on, things you think I need to hear about, I'm very easy to reach. You can reach me by email at duncank at ProgressAlberta.ca, and I am also on Twitter far too much at Duncan Kinney.
00:34:23
Speaker
Thanks again to Aline Brown for coming on the pod. Thanks to Cosmic FamU Communist for our amazing theme. The song I mentioned earlier featuring Bonnie Ray, the No More Pipeline Blues song, that is going to play us out. And, you know, stay safe. Take care of yourself out there. Bye.
00:34:53
Speaker
This is the same water that was here when dinosaurs were here. There is no new water. This is the only water we will ever know. This is the same water that my great ancestors drank from and harvested our wild rice upon them.
00:35:10
Speaker
On this land where we belong Surrounded by the northern heights On this land where we belong Beneath the storm and night On this land where we belong Wild, monoming roads Our blood runs right through the water
00:35:36
Speaker
This land where we belong, rivers, lakes, and streams, flows through the hard land of the sacred Mississippi.
00:36:01
Speaker
This water, this water is sacred. Water is sacred because without water there is no life. You cannot drink oil. On this land of which we belong from the Canadian top sand. One million bales of ore the day to come through these sacred lands.
00:36:27
Speaker
On this land to which we belong With oil thicker than crude Four thousand workers coming our way Got them pandemic pipeline dudes