Stop Line 3: A letter to the president from RSRC
President Biden,
Renewable energy development is not just about reducing emissions, it is about moving toward a cleaner, more just future and creating technology that can become a part of a larger set of solutions to our ecological and climate crises. For these reasons, as scholars in Renewable Energy we are writing you to say that you must put an end to the construction of the Line 3 pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands.
Line 3, which will carry tar sands from Alberta, Canada under miles of indigenous land, precious freshwater resources, and wetland habitat, brings us further away from a cleaner, more just future. The construction violates treaties, puts over 200 bodies of fresh water at risk of contamination, and threatens the livelihoods of the Ojibwe peoples.
As researchers in renewable energy, we know that there are alternatives to tar sands. We work on them every day. Not only is this pipeline a violation of commitments to the future, but it is also unnecessary in the present. We do not need these tar sands. What we need are new solar arrays and wind farms, continued support for ocean and river technologies, a rounded approach to decreasing energy demand, and a commitment to no longer placing the burden of our energy use and extraction on Indigenous Americans. The executives at Enbridge will benefit from the construction of this pipeline, but few others will—certainly not the Minnesotans whose land is being torn up and water put at risk.
Many of us live on the west coast of the United States of America, plagued annually by wildfires and drought. We cannot sit silently as precious and limited a resource as freshwater is treated as if it is disposable and peripheral. We are asking you to protect another region of our country from the strain of water shortages that looms over our communities. We must look no further than our 5-month-long wildfire season to see the absurdity of new fossil fuel infrastructure.
Line 3 has been approved over the voices of the people it impacts, over the commitments the U.S. government has made to indigenous Nations, and over the pleas of Americans on behalf of their children. Please, stop this abandonment of our future. Stop the new Line 3, and send Enbridge to clean up the existing, abandoned pipeline.
River Stone Renewables Coalition
For more information visit stopline3.org
