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John,
Right now, an old and deteriorating pipeline transports 23 millions of gallons of oil below the Great Lakes each day.
This ticking time bomb is known as Line 5, and it’s been illegally operating for two years in violation of a shutdown order from Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
The Canadian multi-national corporation Enbridge Energy owns Line 5, and has a terrible environmental track record. In 2010, Enbridge’s broken pipeline caused one of the worst inland oil spills in U.S. history, poisoning the water in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River.
Please sign the petition to President Biden: Act now to shut down the Line 5 pipeline, before it’s too late!
Every day that oil flows through Line 5 is a catastrophe risk to the entire Great Lakes region.
But this fight is especially urgent now, as the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa just asked a federal court to order an emergency shutdown to Line 5. Previously, a federal judge ruled that Line 5 trespassed on this tribe’s sovereign tribal lands. Now, extreme riverbank erosion further threatens the aging pipeline, which is already decades past its lifespan.
The pipeline also runs under the Straits of Mackinac, a sacred area for tribes that University of Michigan experts concluded is the “worst possible place” for an oil spill in the Great Lakes.1
Many Indigenous and Tribal communities continue to oppose the pipeline, which violates tribal treaty rights. I’ve been honored to meet with Indigenous water protectors also affected by Enbridge pipelines like Line 3 in Minnesota, where Enbridge has rewarded cops for shooting and abusing protesters. Our fights to shut down pipelines and stop fossil fuel destruction are interconnected fights for racial, environmental, and social justice.
President Biden should revoke the presidential permit for the Line 5 pipeline and order it to be decommissioned. Please sign if you agree!
Thank you. I will keep fighting for our government to recognize water as a human right.
In solidarity,
Rashida
1 https://news.umich.edu/straits-of-mackinac-worst-possible-place-for-a-great-lakes-oil-spill-u-m-researcher-concludes/
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