John,

The devastating wildfires in Los Angeles this week are yet another example of the risks our communities face as climate change intensifies environmental disasters.

The fossil fuel industry will soon have even more power with a Republican-controlled Congress and White House, but in his final week in the White House, President Biden can take some important environmental actions.

In the past few weeks Biden has designated new national monuments to protect sacred land from mining and oil and gas exploration, and permanently banned offshore oil and gas drilling for millions of acres of ocean. His environmental legacy should include at least one more step: revoking the permit for the Line 5 pipeline, which transports some of the dirtiest and most carbon-intensive oil through my state of Michigan and more.

Add your name to demand President Biden revoke permits for the Line 5 pipeline, which endangers the Great Lakes and nearby communities, and the Line 3 pipeline, which endangers communities in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.

The Line 5 pipeline threatens drinking water for more than 40 million people. Reminding us that “water is life,” Tribal Nations across the Great Lakes oppose the pipeline and have been trying to shut it down for years. Native land and water defenders have also been resisting and trying to stop the Line 3 pipeline for years.

Both pipelines are operated by the same company, Enbridge Energy. Enbridge has a disturbing history of faulty infrastructure and environmental destruction, including in my home state of Michigan. Line 5’s infrastructure is dangerously outdated and aging, increasing the risks of catastrophic oil spills.

As the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians explains, Line 5 itself has “already leaked more than 1 million gallons of oil inland,” and “much of Line 5’s crude oil is derived from the Alberta Tar Sands, which is the dirtiest fuel to process on earth.”¹ Line 3 is also part of the network of pipelines carrying Canadian oil from tar sands into the United States—pipelines that violate our Indigenous neighbors’ treaty rights and sovereign rights.

We know burning and extracting fossil fuels drives climate change and related disasters, which is why the environmental movement and Native communities have demanded we keep fossil fuels in the ground. Additionally, crude tar sands oil has more carbon than “conventional” oil, which means it worsens climate change even more.

Can you add your name to urge President Biden to revoke the permits for the dangerous Line 3 and Line 5 pipelines? He has one more week to act for our climate and our water.

Thank you for taking action to protect our planet and our Great Lakes. I’m committed to fighting for environmental justice and I’ll keep taking on corporate polluters in Congress.

In solidarity,

Rashida

¹ Line 5 Pipeline 101