As many of you may know, I am no stranger to political opposition and noise surrounding a decision or a project. And in the coming days, northern Minnesota is going to be seeing a lot of noise, attention, and disruption when it comes to hundreds of protesters traveling thousands of miles to protest the Line 3 pipeline project.
While much attention will be made of these protesters and the “mass arrests” they are planning for, I think attention should also be paid to how and why this project came to be.
Over the past handful of years, Enbridge has worked with federal, state and local agencies to develop a plan to replace the Line 3 pipeline per the consent decree issued by the administration of President Barack Obama. Time and again, the Line 3 pipeline replacement project met and exceeded the necessary requirements and gathered the proper permits while being given the go-ahead by courts and agencies alike.
In these times of extreme political division, it is important that our leaders continue to stand strong and not bend to the angry mob for political points but keep looking at projects like Line 3 on their merits.
We must cut through the noise to thank and acknowledge the agencies, experts, and leaders who helped green-light this project. We should all be grateful that we can trust in our state agencies to not cave to the protesters (especially when many are not even from Minnesota).
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Robert Vlaisavljevich
Eveleth
The writer is mayor of Eveleth.
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