Reflections from a New Mexican at the Line 3 Protests in Minnesota

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By Ann McCartney

I first became conscious of the White Earth and Red Lake Nations fight to stop construction of the Line 3 pipeline by Enbridge when I heard Tara Houska present at the BiPoc Climate Dialogue on April 8, 2021.  Tara spoke eloquently about the treaty rights and the need to resist further degradation of Anishinaabe lands and waters.

When the indigenous women of northern Minnesota invited others to come join protesting the Line 3 replacement pipeline, my husband Ward and I decided it was the right thing to do to drive to the Treaty People Gathering held June 5-8 in Waubon, MN.

Line 3 is a tar sands pipeline currently under construction through northern Minnesota – violating treaty rights, risking over 200 bodies of water with the threat of an oil spill, and reversing our progress on climate change with a carbon equivalent of 50 coal-fired power plants.

In preparation, we both participated in the mandatory orientation calls to attend the Gathering.  Early on, we were uncertain what level of action and risk of arrest  we were willing to take but went mentally prepared for possible arrest and took cash for bonding out.

Both of us knew we were called to stand with indigenous leaders and other Water Protectors in this fight for Mother Earth and all beings.  We had support from both NM Interfaith Power and Light and 350NM, two climate action organizations in which we are very active.

Note: Climate advocates from NM-IPL, 350 New Mexico and other environmental organizations have organized protests outside of Wells Fargo Bank buildings in Albuquerque (200 Lomas Blvd NW) and Los Lunas (1027 Main St. SE) on Monday, July 19 at 11:00 a.m.  Wells Fargo is one of the institutions that is financing the project. For more information, contact Ann McCartney, asims98891@aol.com

A Water Bowl from Santa Clara Pueblo

On June 3 with started out from Albuquerque with a beautiful small black bowl with an embossed water serpent made in Santa Clara and a vase of Rio Grande River water to take to the Indigenous women in honor and in thanks for the invitation to join them to fight the pipeline.  Arriving at the remote “Pure Bliss Ranch” on Anishinaabe land on June 5, we were greeted by many volunteers to help us check in, find a camping spot, and carry our gear across a stream and into the gorgeous woods of Minnesota.

Two thousand people showed up for the Treaty People gathering and we sat under large pavilion tents in the hot sun for the welcoming talks, songs, and prayers.  Dawn Goodwin, Everlasting Wind,  was our unfailing guide and we heard stories from the ten year history of action against the pipelines from many indigenous leaders.   We understood, as white people, we were there to listen and do what we could to protect and elevate the voices of the native people whose voices have so long been ignored.

The next morning was the day of action training and after inspirational talks, Ward and I chose to be in the red group – the group most willing to risk arrest, and attended the red group training.   Two sites were identified for action and the red group prepared expecting police protection to be in place at the site upon our arrival.

We practiced how to maneuver around or through a line of police.  Volunteers helped us write the jail support number on our bodies in case our belongings were taken from us upon arrest.    Ward and I joined two other supporters to form an affinity or support group to act in concert together.   Another requirement was for our affinity group to have a driver to drop our group at the action site so our car would not be parked at the highway during the action.

A Day of Action

We were set and rose early on Monday, June 7 for the day of action.  Two Inlets Pumping Station was our goal (which we were not told ahead of time)  and after we passed other protestors at the access road, we walked into the pumping station. Enbridge had vacated the pumping station because of the protest and with the other protestors, we occupied the site.  Winona La Duke, Tara Houska and Jane Fonda, and other notables, came and spoke to the protestors and the press about the reasons to stop Line 3.  Collectively we occupied the site for several hours, both within the site and out at the access road protest line.  During the morning, a Department of Homeland Security helicopter swooped down kicking up dust and issued an order to disperse.

Around 4 p.m. in the afternoon, three busloads of police officers arrived from a side road.  The red group gathered around the pump site to try and break or go around the line of police officers who immediately surrounded the site.  The protestors who were still inside the work site were arrested – and the water protectors who had locked themselves to the machinery inside the site were unlocked and arrested.

Ward and I stood with the line facing the line of police officers, chanting to stop line 3 until 6 p.m.  Some of the protestors turned the chants into anti-police rhetoric, which we did not support, as we had gone to stop a pipeline, not to confront the police for being police.  The chants directed at them seemed contrary to our collective mission, and we chose to return to the Treaty People Gathering camp and not stay to be arrested.  One hundred seventy-nine protesters who stayed at the protest line at the pump station were arrested or given citations for trespassing.

A Message to President Biden

The message went to President Biden about why the Line 3 replacement line must be stopped as it violates treaty rights and  promotes the use of dirty fossil fuels all over the world when our land, air and water are progressively deteriorating.  It was an honor and a privilege to stand with our indigenous leaders and to promote and elevate their voices to the extent possible.

In many ways, our hearts are still with them, and we wish we could be there to continue the fight against fossil fuel use and the degradation of the sacred lands and waters of northern Minnesota.  We are continuing the protest by having actions on July 19 at 11:00 a.m. at two Wells Fargo locations asking Wells Fargo and other banks to not renew their loans to Enbridge which fund the building of the Line 3 replacement pipeline.

 

(The author, a resident of Valencia County, is co-chair of the NM-IPL board. She is active with NM IPL’s Cool Congregations Committee and the Forest of Bliss tree planting project. She and her husband Wade McCartney attended the protest and gathering in northwestern Minnesota).

Ruth Striegel (NM-IPL Board Co-Chair) Testifies at EPA Hearing

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Methane in our atmosphere intensifies the greenhouse effect, and gives us more and more catastrophic weather events like floods, droughts, and hurricanes. Yet oil and gas operators fail to see the connection between this and their leaky equipment that allows methane to escape, or their practice of venting methane. They harm their neighbors but refuse to see the evidence…I urge you to use the tools and technology available to cut methane pollution by 65 percent of 2012 levels by 2025. There is no time to lose. We must act quickly and decisively.

My name is Ruth Striegel. I live in Albuquerque, NM and I am the Advocacy chair for New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light. I’m a mother, a church music director, and a retired school orchestra teacher.

Human life is totally dependent on the health of this planet. We are part of a vastly complex web of interdependence among the animate and inanimate, oceans, land and climate systems. Within my lifetime, we have come crashing in, with only minimal understanding, taking resources and lives with impunity and creating havoc in our planetary systems. The more I understand about this, the more I fear for our future and the angrier I become at those who knew this would happen, but went ahead and put profit before the health of all of us.

Here in New Mexico we are living through a deep and prolonged drought. Because human activity has weakened the jet stream, we have persistent high pressure systems parked over us, resulting in terrible heat and weeks to months without rain. Our Rio Grande is down to a trickle. All this is caused by human activities that emit greenhouse gases, with methane as the most powerful and dangerous one.

The Golden Rule, common to all faith traditions, states that you should not do to your neighbor what is harmful to you. This is basic to human community. But it seems that our definition of who is our neighbor is far too narrow. When emitted into the air, methane is enormously harmful. People and animals living nearby suffer health effects from breathing methane. Methane in our atmosphere intensifies the greenhouse effect, and gives us more and more catastrophic weather events like floods, droughts, and hurricanes. Yet oil and gas operators fail to see the connection between this and their leaky equipment that allows methane to escape, or their practice of venting methane. They harm their neighbors but refuse to see the evidence.

In southeast New Mexico, we have a fracking oil boom in the Permian basin. Operators there are interested in bringing oil to market. The methane that is emitted as part of their operations is not of interest to them, so they allow it to leak, or they vent or flare it. They say that it’s too expensive to collect the gas and bring it to market. But the true cost in human lives and in climate change is much greater than the cost of capturing the gas. People living in the Permian, as well as our Navajo neighbors living near Chaco Canyon in northwest NM and in gas producing areas of San Juan County, have elevated levels of asthma and cancer. Many live within a mile of oil and gas production sites and have to live with constant noise and light pollution. Their children are growing up in these conditions! We would not put up with this in our own neighborhoods. Yet we’ve violated the Golden Rule and allowed this to go on in our neighbors’ backyards.

For better or worse, the New Mexico economy has long been dependent on tax income from extractive industries. As a retired public school teacher, I can tell you that this income funds our schools, but there is never enough funding to cover all the needs. So beyond the health and climate implications of venting and leaking methane, there’s the fact that we are losing a great deal of tax income that would fund our schools when methane is not captured and sent to market.

I urge you to use the tools and technology available to cut methane pollution by 65 percent of 2012 levels by 2025. There is no time to lose. We must act quickly and decisively. Thank you.

Sister Odile Coirier of El Paso Testifies at EPA Hearing

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“…after visiting the Permian Basin a few weeks ago and seeing methane pollution from a special camera, I cannot stop thinking that methane pollution and air pollution do not have boundaries. The Permian Basin is a methane hotspot.”

My name is Odile Coirier. I am a catholic sister, member of the Institute of the Franciscan Missionary of Mary. I am also a member of Interfaith Power and light in New Mexico. I live in El Paso, Texas, and have visited the Permian Basin where there are a number of Catholic parishes in the diocese.

As a member of a faith based group, I believe that every human being has the right to live in a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment and also has the duty to protect the environment. We have created a disruptive climate, we are depleting the natural resources, This wonderful planet has become in some part a wasteland. Our work is inspired by the powerful document of Pope Francis on care for our common home that is God’s creation. The time is now to address the ecological problems for us and the next generations to come.  Pope Francis said:  (and I quote)

“Climate change is a global problem with grave implications… some forms of pollution are part of people’s daily experience. Exposure to atmospheric pollutants produces a broad spectrum of health hazards, especially for the poor and causes millions of premature deaths…there is also pollution that affects everyone caused by transport and industrial fumes .. Human beings are creatures of this world enjoying a right to life and happiness and endowed with unique dignity. So we cannot fail to consider the effects on people’s lives of environmental deterioration, current models of development and the throwaway culture“. (end of quotation)

Living in the Southwest for some years, it is very troubling to experience the disruption of climate leading to frequent heat waves, the bad smell early in the morning while we go for a walk. Our area is polluted by smog that affects  daily the health of people and mostly the most vulnerable. It is well known that the air in El Paso is not actually safe as reported by the American Lung Association and affects particularly children, seniors and individuals with respiratory conditions, who are the most sensitive to smog pollution.

There are many sources for our pollution including industrial facilities like the Western Refining , the Newman Power Station and Capitan Compressor Station. But after visiting the Permian Basin a few weeks ago and seeing methane pollution from a special camera, I cannot stop thinking that methane pollution and air pollution do not have boundaries. The Permian Basin is a methane hotspot.

As a Franciscan sister, I am very concerned about all brothers and sisters and God’s creation. A number of our Catholic parishes are in the Permian Basin so they have very direct pollution and climate change is affecting us all.

Texas is the largest producer of oil and gas in the U.S., producing over 30 percent of U.S. domestic production.  Consequently, this means that a significant portion of methane pollution is coming from Texas, oil and gas development.

More regulations are needed to ensure that industries take seriously their moral responsibility to act with integrity and accountability. They need to retrofit equipment to capture methane and there need to be enforceable rules with oversight.

Action must be taken now to strengthen oil and gas rules. Strong federal safeguards are essential for protecting the health and safety of our communities as well as to combat climate change. The EPA’s first plan to regulate pollution under Obama administration should be reinforced and strengthened to address more efficiently the harmful greenhouse gas emissions that continue to affect our communities.

I speak for those who are living in this region because I am deeply concerned. Life is precious, our environment is precious. “We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors; we borrow it from our Children”. Thank you!