Worse Than Keystone: The pipeline project you’ve never heard of

(In These Times) While the national press has focused on the controversy over TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline, the Canadian energy giant Enbridge is planning something even bigger. If the corporation gets its way, it could soon be transporting nearly 4 million barrels of oil every day—more than four times the amount piped by the proposed Keystone XL—across the ecologically sensitive Minnesota Northwoods.

“Northern Minnesota is becoming the superhighway for oil,” says Paul Blackburn, an attorney for Minnesota’s branch of the national climate justice group 350.org.

Enbridge’s 50,000 miles of pipelines span the continent, but the corporation is planning a massive expansion in the Great Lakes basin. This scheme could prove devastating to public and environmental health, as well as the rights of the Anishinaabeg people, who are entitled by federal treaties to use Minnesota’s natural resources to maintain their livelihoods.

The Enbridge Pipeline System, some portions of which date back to 1950, transports crude oil from production facilities in the Athabasca oil sands of Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the United States and Ontario, Canada. Approximately 2 million barrels of oil per day (bpd) are carried through a stretch of the pipeline network that extends from Gretna, Manitoba, where it crosses the border, to a major junction in Clearbrook, Minnesota. From there, a smaller number of pipelines continue on to the seaport of Superior, Wisconsin, where the oil is finally shipped to refineries throughout the Midwest and Eastern Canada. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/17444/worse_than_keystone