On Sunday, October 13, the Anti-Racism Team and Earth Justice Ministry teamed up to show the film Bad River. We now have an update on the project depicted therein.
On December 12, the Wisconsin Sierra Club, 350 Wisconsin, and League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, with legal representation by Midwest Environmental Advocates, filed a lawsuit. This suit challenges the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) permits for Enbridge Energy to build a new 41-mile segment of its Line 5 oil pipeline near the Bad River Reservation in northern Wisconsin.
Enbridge’s 71-year-old pipeline cuts across the Bad River Reservation, where it has been trespassing on Tribal land for more than a decade. Enbridge sought and obtained DNR permits to build a new segment around the Reservation. This pipeline would simply move the risk and harm to the region’s wetlands and waterways, perpetuating reliance on fossil fuels and delaying the transition to clean energy.
The DNR itself has acknowledged that the reroute would facilitate the continued use of fossil fuels and would contribute to negative impacts associated with fossil fuel production, transport, and consumption.
The message is clear: the era of endangering our environment, our climate, and Native Americans must end.
Terry Wiggins, Earth Justice Ministry Co-Chair