The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to fight a lawsuit challenging its permit for Enbridge’s new $3 billion-plus Line 3 pipeline, signaling that the Biden administration is not set to intervene on the side of pipeline opponents.
The Corps defended the water permit it granted to Enbridge in November in a federal court filing late Wednesday. It was the last major permit the company needed to begin construction on the 340-mile pipeline across northern Minnesota, which will ferry thick crude from Canada.
Two Ojibwe tribes and three environmental groups sued the Corps in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. They claimed the Corps didn’t properly evaluate the pipeline’s impact on climate change and that the agency should have conducted its own environmental impact statement on the pipeline.
The lawsuit also alleges that the Corps failed to fully assess Line 3’s impacts on tribal treaty rights. While new Line 3 would only cross one of seven Ojibwe reservations — Fond du Lac — it goes through lands where Indians have treaty rights to hunt, gather and fish.
The plaintiffs have asked the court for a summary judgment, meaning that all factual issues are decided and that the case need not be tried.
The Corps also asked for summary judgment — but in its favor — in the latest court filing, saying it met all requirements under federal environmental law in issuing its the permit, which allows for discharging of dredged material into U.S. waters during pipeline construction.
“The Corps found that the large majority of wetland impacts from the construction of [the new] Line 3 will be temporary, and mitigation will be performed to compensate for the small amount of loss of aquatic resource function,” the filing said.
The Corps also essentially argued that the state — through the Minnesota Department of Commerce — did a “comprehensive” environmental impact statement (EIS) for Line 3, and that a full EIS by the Corps was not needed.
The plaintiffs are the Red Lake and White Earth Ojibwe bands; the indigenous environmental organization Honor the Earth; and the environmental groups the Sierra Club and Friends of the Headwaters.
Since President Joe Biden took office in January, opponents of the pipeline have repeatedly called for him to intervene in Line 3 and yank its Army Corps permit.
“Allowing Line 3 to move forward is, at best, inconsistent with the bold promises on climate and environmental justice President Biden campaigned and was elected on,” said Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, in a press statement.
Pipeline opponents say new Line 3, which partly follows a new route, will open a new region of Minnesota lakes, streams and wild rice waters to oil spill degradation, as well as exacerbate climate change.
Enbridge says the new pipeline, which replaces its aging and corroding current Line 3, is a necessary safety enhancement that will restore the full flow of oil. The current Line 3 operates at only 51 percent of capacity due to safety concerns.
The pipeline is more than 60 percent completed, and Enbridge has said it expects to start transporting oil during the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, protests along the pipeline route have ramped up significantly over the past few weeks.