As permits are getting issued for Enbridge’s Line 3 replacement project, we are seeing leaders of environmental activist groups calling on protesters to head into northern Minnesota.
These same leaders were active in organizing the Standing Rock “protests.” The statements they’ve made in the past don’t sound like they want to come here to simply stand off to the side with signs. It’s clear some plan to actively interfere with construction sites so that workers cannot do their jobs.
The rest of us followed the rules and the process throughout this five-year period of Line 3 review.
But now people opposed to Line 3 realize they aren’t getting what they wanted and didn’t like the results of the process they participated in. Instead they feel it’s OK to now break the rules?
Minnesota has gone through every piece of information and data to review the Line 3 replacement and make sure it is right to move forward. The agencies that are issuing approvals and permits are doing so based on their review of thousands of pages of study and countless public comment opportunities. It is their job to make these decisions.
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These professional protesters do not care about the process this project has gone through or the rule of law. Nevertheless, we still must insist that they do. Protesting is a right of every U.S. citizen, but it must be done peacefully and respectfully, and can’t interfere with the rights of others.
