"Oil Pipeline Foes Ask Judge To Block Alberta Clipper Upgrade"

"MINNEAPOLIS — A federal judge heard conflicting arguments Thursday on whether he should block a capacity expansion on the Alberta Clipper oil pipeline or allow a temporary workaround that lets Enbridge Energy move hundreds of thousands of barrels per day of Canadian tar sands crude across the border without triggering the kind of environmental review that has held up the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

A lawyer for a coalition of tribal, environmental and climate change groups including the White Earth Nation told U.S. District Judge Michael Davis that the State Department should not have let Enbridge circumvent the environmental review by constructing a detour around a three-mile segment of the Alberta Clipper that still requires a presidential permit for expanded capacity. The segment at issue runs between the Canadian border and the first shutoff valve down the line.

Ken Rumelt, an environmental attorney from the Vermont Law School, said the move "eviscerated the opportunity for any meaningful input" by the plaintiffs, who say Enbridge's plan to ultimately expand the capacity of the Alberta Clipper from its current 500,000 to 800,000 barrels per day threatens environmentally sensitive lakes, streams and wetlands in northern Minnesota, and resources such as wild rice that are important to the area's Ojibwe bands."

Steve Karnowski reports for the Associated Press September 10, 2015.