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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Frank Hornstein (DFL)

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Release: Minnesota lawmakers respond to Dept. of Commerce's decision to appeal Line 3 permit

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

ST. PAUL, MN – Yesterday, the Minnesota Department of Commerce announced plans to appeal the Environmental Impact Statement approved by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for the Enbridge Line 3 replacement project in northern Minnesota. A coalition of 17 state lawmakers released the following statement:

"We strongly support and applaud the Walz Administration's decision to continue the appeal of the Public Utilities Commission's decision to grant a Certificate of Need for the Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline. The Department of Commerce, through exhaustive data-driven research, has determined there is no need for the project. We agree with the Department of Commerce that Enbridge and the PUC have not followed state law and demonstrated that oil demand is sufficient to justify a project that will contribute significantly to climate change, usurp Indigenous treaty rights and imperil Minnesota's waters. "

The coalition of state lawmakers includes Reps. Frank Hornstein (61A), Patty Acomb (44B), Jamie Becker-Finn (42B), Jim Davnie (63A), Mike Freiberg (45B), Kaohly Her (64A), Sydney Jordan (60A), Mary Kunesh-Podein (41B), Fue Lee (59A), Todd Lippert (20B), Jamie Long (61B), Kelly Morrison (33B), Mohamud Noor (60B), Dave Pinto (64B), Jean Wagenius (63B) and Sens. Scott Dibble (61) and Carolyn Laine (41).