Sign the petition: Stop Line 3!

The US Department of Homeland Security sent a low-flying helicopter to aggressively scatter those protesting Line 3 in Minnesota — a massive proposed oil pipeline that would infringe upon Indigenous treaty rights and bulldoze hundreds of critical waterways used by the local Ojibwe people.

It’s no surprise that law enforcement is taking such extreme and dangerous measures to protect Big Oil. Indigenous people have long been criminalized for protesting construction projects that threaten their basic needs and fighting for future generations to be able to exercise their basic rights.

President Biden has the executive authority to put an immediate end to Line 3 construction — after all, he cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline during his first week in office.1 We need you to raise your voice and tell him that he must do the same with Line 3.

Sign the petition: Biden must use his executive authority to halt Line 3 construction immediately!

Indigenous people have a right to clean water, as well as a right to protest — and Big Oil is threatening both.

Following the helicopter incident, the Homeland Security task force claimed that they were only trying to send a dispersal message, and that kicking up debris in an attempt to terrorize protestors was unintentional.

But US law enforcement has long used helicopters as a scare tactic. A year ago, under Trump, an army helicopter was flown over a Black Lives Matter protest in DC, an act that was later deemed a misuse of a military aircraft.

The helicopter at Line 3 was a terrifying 20 feet off the ground — a violation of the Code of Federal Regulations.2 It’s totally unacceptable that the Biden administration would use such aggressive tactics to intimidate those fighting for their basic rights but not intervene on behalf of them.

Canadian energy firm Enbridge plans to bulldoze beneath previously undisturbed, sacred sections of the Ojibwe watershed. If built, Line 3 would ship 760,000 barrels of oil each day, carrying bitumen, a heavy oil that sinks in water and therefore nearly impossible to clean up.3

Biden could swiftly direct the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the project’s water crossing permit, effectively stopping construction immediately. He pledged to make fighting for environmental justice a top priority — which is why we need to demand that he take action, right now.

Tell Biden: Stop Line 3 construction now!

Sources:
1. Star Tribune, "Next up for Biden: Stop Line 3," January 27, 2021.
2. The Intercept, "Low-flying DHS helicopoter showers anti-pipeline protestors with debris," June 8, 2021.
3. Al Jazeera, "‘Reclaiming the land’: Indigenous fight against Line 3 ramps up," June 12, 2021.