Stop Line 3 protests | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date | 2016 – present | ||
Location | |||
Caused by | Enbridge Line 3 | ||
Goals |
| ||
Methods | Non-violent direct action, civil disobedience | ||
Parties | |||
Lead figures | |||
Al Monaco (Enbridge CEO) | |||
Casualties | |||
Arrested | over 773 [1] [2] [3] | ||
Charged | 248 [4] [3] |
The Stop Line 3 protests are an ongoing series of demonstrations in the U.S. state of Minnesota against the expansion of Enbridge's Line 3 oil pipeline along a new route. The new route was completed in September 2021, and was operational on 1 October 2021. [5] Indigenous people have led the resistance to the construction of the pipeline, which began following the project's approval in November 2020. Opponents of the pipeline expansion, called water protectors, have established ceremonial lodges and resistance camps along the route of the pipeline. Enbridge has funded an escrow account that law enforcement agencies may draw on for pipeline-related police work. Organizers have arranged marches and occupations of Enbridge construction sites. Following the blockade of an Enbridge pump station on June 7, 2021, nearly 250 people were arrested. Invoking treaty rights, organizers established an encampment at the headwaters of the Mississippi River at a site where Enbridge intends to bury the pipeline.
The Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution (Article VI, Clause 2) establishes treaties as the "supreme Law of the Land". [6] Treaties between Anishinaabe bands and the United States government guaranteed certain treaty rights for their members, namely the rights to harvest wild rice, fish, hunt, and gather medicinal plants on ceded lands. [7] [8] These rights were upheld in the U.S. Supreme Court case Minnesota v. Mille Lacs Band of Chippewa Indians . [9]
Both the existing Line 3 pipeline and the proposed expansion cross lands ceded in treaties. [10] In the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe, the Ojibwe Bands of Lake Superior and the Mississippi River ceded lands in the Arrowhead Region while retaining hunting, fishing and gathering rights. In the 1855 Treaty of Washington, two Ojibwa bands ceded land but retained their usufructuary rights. Additional tribal lands were ceded in the 1863 Treaty of Old Crossing, though the rights to hunt, fish and gather were retained. [11]
Enbridge is a Canadian corporation that maintains vast pipeline networks in the United States. The Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, which was responsible for the 2010 Kalamazoo River oil spill, had its 1953 easement revoked by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in November 2020 due to concerns over the potential impact of a spill to the Great Lakes. [12] [13] [14]
The Line 3 pipeline was built by the Lakehead Pipeline Company (now Enbridge) in the 1960s. It was the source of the Line 3 oil spill in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the worst inland oil spill in U.S. history, which spilled 1.7 million gallons of crude into a tributary of the Mississippi River. [15] It was also the source of the second worst oil spill in Minnesota history, when 1.3 million gallons of crude spilled near Argyle, Minnesota. [16]
Deterioration of the existing Line 3 pipeline has resulted in structural deformities that have rendered the pipeline prone to recurring leaks and oil spills. [17] As a preventative measure in 2008, Enbridge halved the capacity of the pipeline to 390,000 barrels per day. [18]
During the 2010s in the United States, grassroots campaigns against proposed pipelines received widespread media attention. An Indigenous-led campaign against the Dakota Access Pipeline centered at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation evolved from a small protest camp to spark an international movement against pipeline projects. [19] Following resistance to the proposed Sandpiper pipeline, which would have passed through Mississippi River headwaters and wild rice habitat in Minnesota, Enbridge cancelled the project, withdrawing its application in 2016. [20]
Following years of opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, [21] the Biden administration revoked its permit in January 2021. [22]
In 2015, Enbridge announced that it sought to increase the capacity of its pipeline network by rerouting Line 3 through a newly constructed, larger pipeline along a different, existing utility corridor. [18] The new, 36" wide, 340-mile [18] pipeline section is being constructed along a route through the watersheds and ancestral Anishinaabe tribal lands in northern Minnesota, passing between the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, the Red Lake Indian Reservation, and the White Earth Indian Reservation. Enbridge anticipates the completed $7.3 billion pipeline expansion [23] will transport around 760,000 barrels of tar sands oil per day. [18]
Principal among the environmental concerns over the pipeline is the possibility of an oil spill. The route of the new pipeline runs through "some of the most pristine woods and wetlands in North America", [24] crossing over 200 bodies of water, including the headwaters of the Mississippi River, lakes, streams, and wetlands. The route proposed by Enbridge passes over 3,400 acres (14 km2) of water in treaty-protected lands that support wild rice habitat. [10]
Tar sands oil, heavier than regular crude, is among the world's most carbon-intensive fossil fuels. [25] Enbridge's environmental impact statement for Line 3 states that the environmental impact of the oil carried by the pipeline will be equivalent to the emissions of 45 coal-fired power stations when burned, with some 200 million tons of greenhouse gases released every year. [18]
In the years before the approval of the project, pipeline opponents raised concerns that increased sex trafficking along the pipeline's new route would add to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. [26] [27] Minnesotans living in areas where Enbridge is constructing the pipeline expansion have voiced concerns about the effect of "man camps" that house temporary workers. [28] The arrival of highly paid, out-of-state men employed by infrastructure companies such as Enbridge often precipitates rises in crime, particularly prostitution, human trafficking, and drug trafficking. [29] [30] Enbridge denied it was a problem, saying that the company "absolutely rejects the allegation that human trafficking will increase in Minnesota as a result of the Line 3 replacement project." [26]
Two contractors employed by Enbridge were arrested during a sex trafficking sting in Itasca County, Minnesota in February 2021. [31] [32] In March 2021 it was reported that a Thief River Falls nonprofit shelter had been providing services for multiple women who alleged they were assaulted by Enbridge employees. Staff of the shelter also reported instances of their daughters being sexually harassed near an Enbridge camp. [28] Another two Enbridge employees were arrested in a sex trafficking sting in Bemidji in June 2021. [33] [34]
Tribal representatives say the pipeline expansion, which passes through treaty-protected lands, is a violation of their tribal sovereignty. The new route for the expanded pipeline runs through watersheds that support traditional wild rice habitat, a food source important to Ojibwe culture. [18]
Resistance to the Line 3 pipeline expansion is led by Indigenous women and two-spirit people. [35] Ojibwe-led groups including Giniw Collective, Camp Migizi, Red Lake Treaty Camp, RISE Coalition, and Honor the Earth among others have been at the center of resistance. [36] Demonstrators and protesters organizing in opposition to the pipeline refer to themselves as "water protectors" [37] and follow a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience that includes direct actions. [38] Organizers aim to convince the Biden administration to revoke or suspend the pipeline project's federal clean water permit. [23] Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has not taken a firm stance on the pipeline expansion, which received federal approval under the Trump administration. [18] [23]
Opposition to the pipeline persisted throughout the years-long permit process and continued as legal challenges to the project were mounted. [39] [18] Opponents of the pipeline organized protests, at one point making an encampment outside of the offices of the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. [17]
After the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave final approval for the project, it was granted a Minnesota Pollution Control Agency construction storm water permit on November 30, 2020. [40] Construction of the pipeline immediately commenced.
Community organizers have established ceremonial lodges [41] and resistance camps along the length of pipeline. Among them is the Welcome Water Protectors Center which serves as an introduction to other camps. [32]
Protesters gathered at one of the first construction sites for the pipeline in Aitkin County, Minnesota on January 9, 2021. Eight people were arrested for trespassing. Weeks after the protest, the Aitkin County Sheriff's Office charged some movement leaders with misdemeanors, using video livestreamed on Facebook as evidence. Those charged included Winona LaDuke, Tara Houska, Shanai Matteson, and Tania Aubid. [42]
Tania Aubid of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe engaged in a hunger strike in March 2021. [32]
The single "No More Pipeline Blues (On This Land Where We Belong)", written by Larry Long, was released on Earth Day in 2021. The track includes vocals from the Indigo Girls, Bonnie Raitt, Mumu Fresh, Pura Fé, and U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo. [43] A June 2021 concert called Protect the Water featured several musicians performing on a pontoon floating on the Mississippi River including the Indigo Girls as well as singer-songwriters Keith Secola and Annie Humphrey. [44]
Giniw Collective is an Indigenous-women, two-spirit led collective focused on reconnecting to and directly defending the earth founded by Tara Houska in June 2018. [45] [46] The group hosted thousands of water protectors at its camp, called Namewag Camp, located just off the Line 3 route over three years, and provided training in decolonization and non-violent direct action resistance. [45] Tensions with law enforcement reached a breaking point when on June 28, 2021, two weeks after the blockade of the Two Inlets Pump Station located in Hubbard County, Hubbard County Sheriffs attempted to block Giniw Collective and their guests from entering Namewag Camp. [47] The Center For Protest Law and Litigation later won an injunction against the Hubbard County Sheriff for illegally blocking the group's home. [48]
In addition to direct actions, Giniw Collective launched the #DefundLine3 campaign in February 2021, as a founding member of Stop The Money Pipeline Coalition. [49] The collective invited and hosted several members of "the Squad" to Namewag Camp and to meet with tribal leaders in early September to draw awareness to the Line 3 fight, including Representative Ilhan Omar, Representative Rashida Tlaib, Representative Cori Bush, and Representative Ayanna Pressley. [50]
Camp Migizi is a resistance camp against the pipeline founded by Taysha Martineau in Cloquet, Minnesota [51] on the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation. Martineau crowdfunded $30,000 to purchase an acre of land along the planned route of the expanded pipeline. [52] The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa initially opposed the new pipeline, but ceased their opposition following the approval of the project. [53]
Following an invitation from leaders of the opposition to Line 3, around 2000 water protectors gathered for the Treaty People Gathering at the Pure Bliss Ranch on the White Earth Indian Reservation from June 5 to 8, 2021. Attendees learned about treaty rights, [54] non-violent direct action, and attended prayer gatherings and drum circles. The gathering culminated in two separate Indigenous-led direct actions against the pipeline on June 7, a march to the headwaters of the Mississippi River and the blockade of an Enbridge pump station. [18]
Following an interfaith prayer gathering at LaSalle Lake the morning of June 7, over 1,000 people marched along County Highway 40 to the headwaters of the Mississippi River near a planned crossing of the pipeline. Speakers at the event included Winona LaDuke, actress and activist Jane Fonda, and climate change activist Bill McKibben. Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging (RISE) Coalition co-founders Dawn Goodwin and Nancy Beaulieu were also among those to speak. Dakota and Diné elder Tom B.K. Goldtooth guided those who had gathered to the river. [55] Protesters chalked the highway with a message asking President Biden to honor treaties and stop the pipeline. Pipe and water ceremonies were held before elders walked across river marshes to the Enbridge construction site.
The Fire Light Camp was established on June 7 by tribal members and protesters at the site where Enbridge plans to bury its pipeline underneath the headwaters of the Mississippi River. As a multi-day prayer commenced, over 100 people set up camp, pitching tents along an Enbridge matting platform positioned over the river. [18] Enbridge sent a letter to the Clearwater County Sheriff on June 12, 2021, saying that the people there were trespassing. [56]
On the morning of June 7, 2021, protesters scaled metal fencing to enter an Enbridge pump station about 20 miles north of Park Rapids, Minnesota off of Highway 71. [18] [12] In a non-violent direct action, dubbed "peanut butter" by the activists, [12] hundreds of protesters dug trenches [4] and set up blockades with trees and poles along the pump station's access road while about two dozen people chained themselves to the bulldozers and other heavy machinery at the site. [57] [12] Multiple blockade devices made from steel cable and bamboo were placed along the road. [58] An old fishing boat used to block the entrance to the site bore the name "Good Trouble", after the expression used by the late civil rights leader John Lewis. [59]
Attendees of the pump station blockade included Tara Houska as well as actors Jane Fonda, Taylor Schilling, Rosanna Arquette and Catherine Keener. [60] [12] [61]
During the occupation of the pump station, protesters were "rotor washed" by a Customs and Border Protection helicopter after local law enforcement called for its assistance. [37] While the Northern Lights Task Force maintained that the helicopter was there to issue a dispersal warning and that the rotor washing was unintentional, video taken by an MPR News reporter showed the helicopter repeatedly performing a maneuver where it hovered about 20 feet off the ground for extended periods, while the wash from its rotor kicked up clouds of dust and debris towards the crowd and the people chained up on the ground. [62] [18] After a clip of the incident went viral, the CBP released a statement saying that there would be an investigation into the actions of the helicopter team. [62]
Following the rotor washing incident, police officers clad in riot gear arrived at the site. [12] Dozens were arrested as police deployed a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), a sonic weapon. [18] By the next morning over 100 protesters were thought to have been arrested. [12] Ultimately, 247 people were arrested. 68 were released after receiving citations for unlawful assembly and public nuisance while another 179 were charged with trespassing, a gross misdemeanor, [4] and taken in buses and vans to various county jails. Hubbard County Sheriff Cory Aukes announced that arrestees would be transferred to other counties, as there was not enough room in the county jail to hold them all. [18] Los Angeles Times journalist Alan Weisman was arrested, strip-searched, and had his equipment confiscated while he was detained for hours by the Hubbard County Sheriff's Department. [63]
Opponents of Line 3 have pressured banks who are financing the pipeline expansion to cut ties with Enbridge. Banks funding the pipeline include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, the Royal Bank of Canada, and Toronto-Dominion Bank. [64]
About 1,000 protesters held three days of demonstrations at the Minnesota State Capitol beginning on August 25, 2021, where the building had been surrounded by security fencing. Protesters called on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and U.S. President Joe Biden to revoke permits and end the pipeline project. Volunteers erected several teepees on the capitol grounds, which Minnesota State Patrol officers had them remove when the protest permit expired on August 27, resulting in a stand off with law enforcement. Four people were arrested for obstruction. [2]
On August 28, 2021, protesters of the Line 3 oil pipeline marched peacefully from the Minnesota State Capitol building to outside the Minnesota Governor's Residence to advocated for treaty rights and sovereignty of Indigenous lands. At the governor's residence, several people chained themselves to a fence and gate, and officials issued a dispersal order and several people declined to leave the area. In response, Minnesota State Patrol officers arrested and charged 69 people for disorderly conduct, riot, and threats of violence. [3]
The Equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square just to the north of the White House was vandalized with the words "Expect Us" on Indigenous Peoples' Day (also Columbus Day), Monday, October 11, 2021. Protestors had been chanting "respect us or expect us" in response to protesting the Line 3 pipeline in Minnesota that runs through lands owned by Indigenous tribes who are concerned that the pipeline could spill and ruin the land they use to farm. [65]
The Northern Lights Task Force, an interagency law enforcement coalition, was established following state approval of the Line 3 expansion. The task force is funded by Enbridge and includes multiple law enforcement agencies, including Sheriff's departments from counties along the route of the pipeline. [18] Enbridge established an escrow account in May 2020 that allows law enforcement agencies to draw funds for policing costs related to the pipeline. As of March 2022, the escrow account has dispensed over $7.7 million to Minnesota law enforcement agencies, including $2.2 million to Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources. [66] The Cass County Sheriff's Office alone drew over $327,000 of funding for policing costs by April 2021. [67] Center for Protest Law and Litigation lawyer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard criticized the account, saying it incentivizes law enforcement "to take action against peaceful opponents of the pipeline". Protesters have reported aerial surveillance by drones and being tailed by law enforcement in vehicles. Prior to booking arrestees, Hubbard County Sheriff Cory Aukes handcuffs people inside of dog kennel-like cages in his facility's garage bays. [67]
Law enforcement personnel prepared for demonstrations for months. Officers from 12 counties converged at Camp Ripley in September 2020 for a 12-hour training scenario called Operation River Crossing. [25] Following the final approval of the pipeline in November 2020, the task force established the Northeast Emergency Operations Center, a regional headquarters for law enforcement response. [25] From the beginning of construction in December 2020 until June 2021, the task force made over 70 arrests. [18]
Aitkin County Sheriff Daniel Guida and county officials have monitored the social media posts of Stop Line 3 protesters. Guida has posted tables of protest events on Facebook, including details of several pipeline protests with locations, their hosts, and estimates of the number of attendees. [42]
Following protests in June 2021, Enbridge spokesperson Michael Barnes compared the blockade of the pump station to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. [37] He said that the pipeline expansion had been 60% completed and that the protests had not had a major impact on construction. [18] Enbridge CEO Al Monaco has said that the pipeline expansion is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2021. [18] According to Enbridge, as of June 2021, around 4000 workers are constructing the pipeline at five different project areas in Minnesota. [12]
Enbridge Inc. is a Canadian multinational pipeline and energy company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Enbridge owns and operates pipelines throughout Canada and the United States, transporting crude oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids, and also generates renewable energy. Enbridge's pipeline system is the longest in North America and the largest oil export pipeline network in the world. Its crude oil system consists of 28,661 kilometres of pipelines. Its 38,300 kilometre natural gas pipeline system connects multiple Canadian provinces, several US states, and the Gulf of Mexico. The company was formed by Imperial Oil in 1949 as the Interprovincial Pipe Line Company Limited to transport Alberta oil to refineries. Over time, it has grown through acquisition of other existing pipeline companies and the expansion of their projects.
The Enbridge Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system which transports crude oil and dilbit from Canada to the United States. The system exceeds 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) in length including multiple paths. More than 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi) of the system is in the United States while the rest is in Canada and serves the Athabasca oil sands production facilities. Main parts of the system are 2,306-kilometre-long (1,433 mi) Canadian Mainline and 3,057-kilometre-long (1,900 mi) Lakehead System. On average, it delivers 1.4 million barrels per day of crude oil and other products to the major oil refineries in the American Midwest and the Canadian province of Ontario. The Canadian portion is owned by Enbridge, while the U.S. portion is partly owned by that company through Enbridge Energy Partners, LP, formerly known as Lakehead Pipe Line Partners and Lakehead Pipe Line Company.
The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States, commissioned in 2010 and owned by TC Energy and, as of March 2020, the Government of Alberta. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta to refineries in Illinois and Texas, and also to oil tank farms and an oil pipeline distribution center in Cushing, Oklahoma.
The Prairie River is a river in Itasca County, Minnesota. The river is located in northern Minnesota, near the communities of Taconite, Bovey, Grand Rapids, and La Prairie. It is a tributary of the Mississippi River.
The Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines were a planned-but-never-built project for a twin pipeline from Bruderheim, Alberta, to Kitimat, British Columbia. The project was active from the mid-2000s to 2016. The eastbound pipeline would have imported natural gas condensate, and the westbound pipeline would have exported diluted bitumen from the Athabasca oil sands to a marine terminal in Kitimat for transportation to Asian markets via oil tankers. The project would have also included terminal facilities with "integrated marine infrastructure at tidewater to accommodate loading and unloading of oil and condensate tankers, and marine transportation of oil and condensate." The CA$7.9 billion project was first proposed in the mid-2000s but was postponed several times. The project plan was developed by Enbridge Inc., a Canadian crude oil and liquids pipeline and storage company.
The Kalamazoo River oil spill occurred in July 2010 when a pipeline operated by Enbridge burst and flowed into Talmadge Creek, a tributary of the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Michigan. A 6-foot (1.8 m) break in the pipeline resulted in one of the largest inland oil spills in U.S. history. The pipeline carries diluted bitumen (dilbit), a heavy crude oil from Canada's Athabasca oil sands to the United States. Cleanup took five years. Following the spill, the volatile hydrocarbon diluents evaporated, leaving the heavier bitumen to sink in the water column. Thirty-five miles (56 km) of the Kalamazoo River were closed for clean-up until June 2012, when portions of the river were re-opened. On March 14, 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered Enbridge to return to dredge portions of the river to remove submerged oil and oil-contaminated sediment.
Idle No More is an ongoing protest movement, founded in December 2012 by four women: three First Nations women and one non-Native ally. It is a grassroots movement among the Indigenous peoples in Canada comprising the First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples and their non-Indigenous supporters in Canada, and to a lesser extent, internationally. It has consisted of a number of political actions worldwide, inspired in part by the liquid diet hunger strike of Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence and further coordinated via social media. A reaction to alleged legislative abuses of Indigenous treaty rights by then Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservative federal government, the movement takes particular issue with the omnibus bill Bill C-45. The popular movement has included round dances in public places and blockades of rail lines.
Enbridge Line 5 is a 645-mile oil pipeline owned by the Canadian multinational corporation Enbridge. Constructed in 1953, the pipeline conveys crude oil from western Canada to eastern Canada via the Great Lakes states. Line 5 is part of the Enbridge Lakehead System and passes under the environmentally sensitive Straits of Mackinac, which connect Lake Michigan to Lake Huron. The 30-inch pipeline carries 540,000 barrels (86,000 m3) of synthetic crude, natural gas liquids, sweet crude, and light sour crude per day as of 2013.
The Trans Mountain Pipeline System, or simply the Trans Mountain Pipeline(TMPL), is a multiple product pipeline system that carries crude and refined products from Edmonton, Alberta, to the coast of British Columbia, Canada.
The Sandpiper pipeline was a proposed 616-mile-long (991 km) underground oil pipeline project in the United States. It would have carried light crude oil from the Bakken oil fields in Northwest North Dakota, through Minnesota, to Superior, Wisconsin.
The Dakota Access Pipeline Protests, also known by the hashtag #NoDAPL, were a series of grassroots Native American protests against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in the northern United States that began in April 2016. Protests ended on February 23, 2017 when National Guard and law enforcement officers evicted the last remaining protesters.
Matthew "Matt" Grossell is an American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2017. A member of the Republican Party of Minnesota, Grossell represents District 2A in northwestern Minnesota, which includes the city of Bemidji and parts of Beltrami, Clearwater, and Lake of the Woods Counties.
The Line 3 pipeline is an oil pipeline owned by the Canadian multinational Enbridge. Operating since 1968, it runs 1,031 miles (1,659 km) from Hardisty, Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin, United States.
The Unistʼotʼen Camp is a protest camp and indigenous healing centre in northern British Columbia, Canada. It is located within the traditional territory of the Unist'otʼen clan of the Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation peoples. Established after the proposal of several pipeline projects in the area, it is situated where several pipelines will pass, as a means to block their construction.
From January to March 2020, a series of civil disobedience protests were held in Canada over the construction of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline (CGL) through 190 kilometres (120 mi) of Wetʼsuwetʼen First Nation territory in British Columbia (BC), land that is unceded. Other concerns of the protesters were Indigenous land rights, the actions of police, land conservation, and the environmental impact of energy projects.
The Valve Turners is a label given to, and claimed by, environmental activists who take direct action against the fossil fuel industry by illegally turning emergency shut-off valves to close oil pipelines. Valve Turners have sought to use the necessity defense in court, arguing that they were obligated to act in the face of the imminent threat of climate change to which oil pipelines contribute. In some cases, they have invoked Indigenous sovereignty and treaty rights.
The Line 3 oil spill was a 1.7 million gallon crude oil spill in Minnesota on March 3, 1991. The Line 3 pipeline, then owned by the Lakehead Pipeline Company, ruptured on a wetland near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, spilling oil into the Prairie River, a tributary of the Mississippi River. It was the largest inland oil spill in the history of the United States.
Tara Houska Zhaabowekwe is a tribal attorney, land defender and climate justice activist.
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) or Bakken pipeline is a 1,172-mile-long (1,886 km) underground pipeline in the United States that has the ability to transport up to 750,000 barrels of light sweet crude oil per day. It begins in the shale oil fields of the Bakken Formation in northwest North Dakota and continues through South Dakota and Iowa to an oil terminal near Patoka, Illinois. Together with the Energy Transfer Crude Oil Pipeline from Patoka to Nederland, Texas, it forms the Bakken system. The pipeline transports 40 percent of the oil produced in the Bakken region.
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