Meanwhile, protests over the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota, which the Biden Justice Department is defending, continue. The pipes, Nick Martin wrote in June, “are slated to cut through 200 bodies of water, including the Mississippi River,” threatening tribal nations’ fresh water supply. Spills are “a matter of when, not if,” as Nick previously detailed. And when they happen, they are frequently mismanaged.
It’s hard to make the case that the world needs more pipelines. Back in May, the International Energy Agency reported that capping warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) means not building any more pipelines or other fossil fuel infrastructure, period. Yet in they go, all over the world.
All this leads Nick to argue in a new piece that, whatever the federal government of any country does or doesn’t do, it’s time for communities to rise up against each and every new project threatening their immediate safety and livable futures. “Local, community-driven resistance has been one of the most effective ways to highlight and counter the cold ruthlessness of extractive outfits,” he writes, pointing to locals’ victory over the planned Byhalia Connection pipeline in Tennessee. The company behind the pipeline, Plains All American, announced on Monday that it was abandoning the project.
Even as the sea burns, companies’ and governments’ deranged commitment to pipelines is only growing. It’s a hard story to process. Check out Nick’s piece for a rare note of hope.
—Heather Souvaine Horn, deputy editor
