ACTION ALERT: Tell President Biden: Stop The Pipeline

Win Without War

(September 4, 2021) — Crucial wetlands and rivers, including the Mississippi River, are at risk of being contaminated by Line 3, a Trump-approved pipeline expansion project. As many as 20 wild rice lakes, sacred and much needed by Indigenous communities in the region, may be ruined. Every year, the air will be poisoned by the equivalent of the total CO2 daily emissions of 16-18 million cars.

And the social cost of that poisoning? At least $287 BILLION. 

As construction of Line 3 pipeline comes terrifyingly close to completion, there’s no time to waste in stopping this project and preventing even more destruction and suffering. 

And President Biden CAN stop it — he proved this when he cancelled the permit for the similarly awful Keystone XL pipeline at the beginning of his presidency. Join us in urging him to now cancel Line 3’s presidential permit.

You may be wondering why an anti-war organization like us is talking about Line 3. Here’s the thing: a key part of our mission is exposing the real security threats to our communities. 

And for Indigenous communities, this pipeline is causing a direct and actual threat, even before its completion: local and federal law enforcement have responded to protestors’ attempts to protect their land and dignity with brutality and violence. 

Building real human security means addressing the real threats to our environment, to clean food and water access, to the air we must breathe, to communities’ long-held ways of life and their livelihoods. And we firmly believe that until the fights for Indigenous rights and environmental justice are won, we will never achieve any lasting peace — here or abroad.

Right now, Native and climate activists are putting up a resilient fight against injustice on too many fronts. We’ve seen it continuously, from Keystone XL to the Peace River Mainline to the original Line 3 now being expanded. Oil and natural gas pipelines leak and rupture over and over again — causing lasting harms that wreak havoc on the area, wildlife, and people who live nearby. 

And the company in charge of Line 3 just so happens to own another pipeline responsible for the 2010 Kalamazoo River Disaster — the biggest inland oil spill in US history.

It’s not a question of if Line 3 will cause catastrophe — it’s a question of when. 

The clock is ticking, but President Biden has the power to stop this dangerous pipeline in its tracks and honor his campaign promises to take climate justice and tribal rights seriously​​. He must choose — once again — to listen to Indigenous communities and climate organizers, and make another good decision by canceling Line 3’s permit.

Action: Help us urge President Biden to stop Line 3.

THE LETTER

To President Biden:

Your administration must do all it can to honor Indigenous treaty rights and address the threats posed by climate change by stopping the construction of Line 3. I urge you to revoke or amend Line 3’s presidential permit immediately.

Signed,

We imagine a world where Indigenous peoples have full dignity, rights, and justice, and where the environment is cherished and respected. Pipelines like Line 3 simply have no place in that world.

Thank you for working for peace,

Annika, Amy, Sara, and the Win Without War team

Win Without War 2020, 1 Thomas Circle NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005