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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Legal victory for Sandpiper Pipeline opponents

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REGIONAL – Opponents of the proposed Sandpiper Pipeline project won a legal victory on Monday when the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s Public Utilities Commission erred when it voted to move forward with certificate of need proceedings prior to the completion of a full environmental review.

The pipeline, which would carry crude from the Bakken oil fields to refineries in Superior, Wis., has drawn considerable opposition from residents of north-central Minnesota, where the pipeline would cross. The White Earth Band of Ojibwe is among the groups opposed to the project, citing potential impacts to lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands and wild rice in the region in the event of a major spill.

Both sides in the case agreed that the project required an environmental impact statement— the only question was timing. The group Friends of the Headwaters, represented by Kathryn Hoffman of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, argued that the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act, or MEPA, requires the completion of environmental review before the state can grant final approvals, such as issuing a certificate of need, on a major project. The Court agreed, noting that the potential environmental impacts should be part of the deliberations on whether the pipeline is actually needed. “Completion of an EIS at the initial certificate of need stage seems particularly critical here,” stated the three-judge panel that heard the case, “because once a need is determined, the focus will inevitably turn

to where the pipeline should go, as opposed to whether it should be built at all.”

If approved, the pipeline, proposed by the North Dakota Pipeline Company, would carry 375,000 barrels per day of oil from the Bakken region of North Dakota across northern Minnesota to Superior, Wisconsin, where it would be shipped via pipeline or rail to refineries, mostly in the lower Midwest. North Dakota Pipeline Company’s parent company, Enbridge, has also publicly discussed a proposal to put a second pipeline in the same pipeline corridor that would carry tar-sands oil from Canada, if the Sandpiper is approved. Both pipelines together could affect up to 10,000 acres of land during construction.

“We are pleased that the Court recognized the importance of environmental review in this process,” said MCEA’s Hoffman. “Environmental review provides the opportunity for the public to weigh in on a proposed project, and allows agencies to gather critical information about the impact of that project before deciding how or whether to proceed.”

Citizens groups, as well as the state’s Pollution Control Agency and the Department of Natural Resources have all expressed concerns about the proposed location of the pipeline, and citizens groups urged the MPUC to consider alternative locations. The Commission agreed, but declined to conduct environmental review that would compare the potential environmental impacts of the various locations.

“We are confident that, with thorough evaluation, the Commission will find that other locations for this pipeline are better for the state of Minnesota,” said Friends of the Headwaters President and spokesperson Richard Smith.

While environmentalists were pleased, members of the Laborers International Union of America expressed disappointment over the decision and said it will delay the creation of good-paying construction jobs for its members. LIUNA International Representative Dan Olson called the delay “totally unnecessary, noting that his organization had urged the MPUC not to deviate from its usual practice with pipeline permitting. It was the commission’s decision to change its process that, in part, led to the court’s ruling. “We argued from the beginning that the Commission should use the same process employed for previous pipelines. Had that been done, our members might be building the project today. Now the Commission needs to act quickly to get the process back on track, because the facts are as clear today as they were when they voted unanimously to move the process forward: Sandpiper is the best, safest way to move oil through Minnesota."

On August 3, 2015, the MPUC formally approved the proposed route for the pipeline. The Commission will now need to conform its proceedings with the court’s decision, which orders an Environmental Impact Statement for the pipeline before final approval of a certificate of need, or prior to approval of a route.