At the end of the day on April 15, we knew that we had reached a ton of people. For four months, we’d been using every means we knew to let Wisconsinites know that Lake Superior and so much more were threatened by Enbridge’s Line 5 expansion proposal. But we were shocked on Wednesday, August 17, when the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) revealed that 32,000 people had weighed in on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for that dangerous project. The unprecedented number of comments (both for and against) shows how very controversial the proposal for a new 45-mile pipeline segment through Ashland and Iron Counties is.
Mike Wiggins Jr: “Deep Blue under Earth drinking water aquifers look like they are reaching out but they are actually pouring down and pouring in. Wispy areas are where surface waters and groundwater’s interact, and it’s hardly a place for Earth destroyers. Water is life.” Map courtesy Mike Wiggins, Jr.
Our Tar Sands Team makes its mark!
Our Tar Sands Team (a joint team with the Sierra Club’s Wisconsin Chapter) and many others worked very hard from December to April 15 to alert Wisconsinites to their chance to comment on this extremely dangerous pipeline proposal, and the people responded with passion and reason. Thank you if you phone banked, tabled, wrote a letter to the editor, created art, contributed money or graphic design for a newspaper ad, or created or shared social media posts. Or maybe you helped plan a webinar or presented at one. Maybe you found the courage to testify at the public hearing. However you helped, we thank you!
But the fight’s not over yet!
As the Wisconsin DNR reads and considers all the comments, including many long, technical comments by experts on how the proposed pipeline would endanger our water, lands, and climate, we have more work to do. The Biden and Evers administrations need a ton of support/pressure to deny permits to Enbridge. Here’s how you can help.
- Sign up for our data project, which you can do on a computer from your home. We need to quickly analyze the 32,000 comments to see what people’s concerns are.
- Come table with us at festivals and other busy places, as we give people the chance to sign a petition against the Line 5 expansion.
Happy tablers! Will you join them?
- Sign up to phone-bank environmentalists to offer them a yard sign.
- Join our Tar Sands Team. We meet monthly on Zoom for an hour. Whether you can volunteer two hours a month or two hours a day, we can find a way for you to help.
Picture this in your lawn or window!
To sign up to help with any of these things, fill out this form, and we’ll follow up with you.
Want to do more to spread the word? Take a “Stop Line 5” yard sign! Fill in this form, and we’ll figure out how to get it to you. Right now, we only have the capacity to distribute in Wisconsin.
Thank you so much for your continued determination to protect us all from Line 5! If you are able, please sign up to volunteer and consider making a donation to support out work.