Angry opponents shouted as state regulators on Monday approved a “certificate of need” and route permit for the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline. Winona LaDuke told the Public Utilities Commission they’re “creating a civil war in the north.” LaDuke says, “People get their signs shot up. We have drones outside of our windows…. I pull up someplace and someone says to me, you have a lot of nerve being here.”
Opponents warn pipeline crews will victimize local indigenous women. But Anna Friedlander with the United Association of Journeymen responds skilled union craftspeople would be building the pipeline: “Held very strongly accountable to the union, so any bad behavior is punished internally within the union — losing your membership rights, losing your livelihood.”
Opponents promise more legal action to try to block the pipeline.